Ryan A Graves.com

Two days ago was the 1 month anniversary for Y Combinator start-up Posterous. I’ve blogged about Posterous before but they just released a new feature that is going to change things. They are doing an incredible job at simplifying blogging and now other things.  In the past (first release) you would just email to post@posterous.com and whatever you emailed whether it was a mp3, text, or image file it would auto post to your personal Posterous page. Simple right? (Let me help) YES.  Now check this…

They have just release the ability to email in other types of updates. Do you follow? Now you can email an image to Flickr@posterous.com and not only will it post to Posterous it will also upload the image to your Flickr page.  Also, you can hook-up your personal blog (Wordpress, TypePad, LiveJournal, etc.). It’s simple to use and easy to hook-up. Also, like any other semi-decent app you can send your updates to Twitter as well (if Twitter is up).

I’ve had a few inquiries about Posterous features to come and other random questions and Garry Tan (founder) has always been quick to respond! They seem to have a solid founding team and as you well know I have a lot of respect for Y Combinator start-ups.

Only complaints: I obviously was excited about these feature releases today so I tried a few things. From my mobile, which is not a smart phone or iPhone, I send first a text message to 41411 (their designated number) and it works, but when I send a pix message or a video message I could not get it to work! Also, when I tried to set up my phone so I could send Posterous emails you have to be able to verify the email and my phone cannot receive emails just send. Thus, I can’t do any multimedia from my phone. Sad.

Request:  Garry can you hook me up so that I don’t have to verify the email address?

Check out my Posterous page here.

In the midst of Twitter’s ever so obvious struggles it was only a matter of time before competition entered the market. With the growth that Twitter has experienced (doubling in March/April 08) it was obvious that there were going to be copy cats.

Plurk is the only site that I’ve seen that is getting ‘tons’ of hype on the internet (outside of Pownce). So much so that Loic Lemeur, Kevin Rose and other big names are going there early just to reserve their name in case Plurk blows up. Scoble tried to get Scobleizer and somebody snaked it! Damn user name squatters. Loic Lemeur even suggested a business that gets your user name on all the new start-ups for you. Luckily I got ‘ryangraves‘.

Plurk has the really simple and intuitive design of a timeline actually laid out horizontally, unlike Twitters thread style. Another cool thing they have built in is what they call  ‘Karma’. A user develops Karma by using Plurk more and more and I think by adding friends. As Twitter continues to struggle with there infrastructure people will undoubtedly try new tools. Plurk just might be the one they go to. So far it doesn’t look like Plurk integrates with Twitter but that might be a way for the Plurk folks to make the transition even more enticing.

I started thinking about having the right tools a few months back. It started with a burning desire to spend $1792 for a refurbished Mac Book Pro, so, yes this post is a result and a justification for that purchase.

As an entrepreneur having the right tools is critical to your success! As I began to try and figure out what those right tools were I realized they come in all shapes and sizes. The following are some of the tools that I’ve found critically important to an entrepreneur’s tool belt.

Mentors: This is a personal favorite because this process is fun. This is the process of getting to learn from someone who has blazed the trails before you. As an entrepreneur you are always talking about and pitching your business to different people (or at least you should be). This is an opportunity to shut-up and listen and learn. If you choose the right mentor then you will always be able to learn from that person no matter what stage of the game you are in, or what stage they are in. For more info on how to get mentored read my friend Larry Chiang’s post on Found|Read.

Founders: Rarely can you be the only one. During the process of founding and building a company your chances of success will significantly increase if you have a co-founder…the right co-founder. There is so much to be done in such a short period of time for an entrepreneur that having 2 or 3 team member is almost a must. Plus, again, this is the fun part. Having the change to create an incubator for ideas and the opportunity to share in successes (and failures) is sometimes the best part!

Computer: Lets be honest with ourselves for a moment. Every business now-a-days needs a good website. Whether that work is contracted out or developed by the entrepreneur it is a must. The cost of developing that portal to your customers is significantly cheaper to develop yourself. Every business also needs good communications to its customers or community. Having the right computer “tool” can help so much in this process. I’m not here to push my newly developed Apple bias on you but please take a look at this before buying a new machine.

I finally got a 15′ MacBook Pro about a week ago and it is definitely the right tool.

Tenacity: Literally nothing can stop you. If you are the track runner who hits his knee on a hurtle and stops running the race, you’re done. Having the ability to fight through ANY situation that you are faced with is the single most important tool to have in your belt. Even if you have the perfect co-founder, funding, mentors, computer, or idea, you will go absolutely no where without the tenacity to fight through the times that people say, “that idea sucks”, or “you haven’t sold any this month”. I feel so lame typing this but, never ever give up.

Purpose: When it comes down to it you need to be able to answer only one question. Why? If you can’t answer that question your passion will dry up. The drive for the business won’t exist and you won’t have the fuel to power that tenacity tool. Before you write an executive summary, mock up a prototype, or call a VC, you must be able to answer the question, why am I doing this?

With those critical tools under your belt you will be able to pull the right tool at the right time and leap “almost” any hurtle. What are other tools that you have found important to your success in business or as an entrepreneur?

Here are five genius pieces of  advice for start-up entrepreneurs. In short: focus, hire passion, it’s a marathon, beware of investors, product perfection.

This advice comes from Jonathan Abrams, founder and CEO of Socializr. I first read this advice on the blog of Jason Goldberg founder of Social|Median.

So you may think that I’m obsessed with Seesmic of late and you’d probably be right. I like it, I think its a great idea with a lot of legs and I think that video on the internet will continue to take up more and more of the web.

This video is an interesting take on Seesmic from the perspective of a journalist. He talks about the idea of using the video as practice for better journalism. However he does draw the difference between online video (youtube, seesmic) and regular television journalism.

This is proof that Seesmic will last because it shows how many different people/markets can find value in the product.