I had the pleasure of being invited to hang out with Devin Thorpe of Crowdfund Beat using Google Hangouts. Of course I was asked about intellectual property (IP) and crowdfunding. But I thought I would share a few tips that I learned from the preparation for this session.
- Google Hangouts can be fickle – Devin and I spent about ten minutes trying to get the tile with the Traklight name on the bottom third of the screen to no avail. Note to self; figure this out on my own next time first!
- Natural light coming from behind your computer is the best lighting – set your computer up on a box or something so that you are eye level and make sure you are backlit with natural lighting. Otherwise you can look greenish with the wrong lighting.
- Look into the computer not side to side – I had some notes on the side and it was distracting – I fear that I may look shifty with my eyes looking to the right. After the first few minutes, I pushed them away and tried very hard to engage directly with Devin and just go for it.
We encourage all crowdfunders to identify and protect their IP before they start.