Tip One: Make sure you are dissatisfied with your current job before entertaining a meeting with a prospective employer.

Why are you willing to consider another offer? Understanding the ‘why’ is very important. If you are underpaid or under appreciated have you talked to your boss? What would make you happier? Have you discussed these issues with your boss? If not, meet with him and talk about how to get your job back on track before taking a meeting with a new employer. Never make a threat, instead ask your boss for career advice – ask him to help you build a road map for your career at the company.

Tip Two: Before you resign make sure you are ‘sold’ on the new company so that a counter offer won’t persuade you to stay.

If the only reason you are considering making a move is money – I bet you aren’t working hard enough to find the right company to work for. Sure, more money is great, but if your current employer matches or beats the new offer and you are persuaded to stay you are likely committing career suicide. The Capital H Group conducted a study of counteroffers and determined that after accepting a counteroffer the average employee is with the company for less than one year. If you really were dissatisfied with your job more money won’t make you happier. Your dissatisfaction will bleed into every part of your work and personal life. Employees who are dissatisfied with their jobs are 75% less likely to get promoted, are 50% more likely to get a divorce and shorten their lives by an average of seven years. Finally, if you accept a counteroffer your relationships with your coworkers will likely be damaged. They may be envious that you turned in your notice and were rewarded with a raise – they may wonder if you really deserved the raise (this is a good reason companies should not make counteroffers as well). In summary (via):

1. The current employer is attempting to cover their tush. When you quit they lose money. When you quit the manager looks bad. Better to keep you on board until they can find a replacement. If that happens your pink slip will follow in short order.
2. You become a fidelity risk to your current employer. You’ve threatened to quit once. It’s only a matter of time before you do it again, and smart companies won’t allow themselves to be put into this situation. You will never be perceived the same to them once you’ve threatened to quit and decided to stay.
3. Any situation which causes an employee to seek outside offers is suspect. For example, if money is your issue why does it take a full court press for your employer to realize they need to pay you more? If you’re worth more money now, why weren’t you worth it 15 minutes earlier?
4. The reasons for you wanting to quit will still remain, even if they are temporarily shaded.
5. Quality, well-run companies won’t give counteroffers…ever! How would you feel if one of your employees forced you into something? ”If you don’t X, then I’m quitting.” I know I’d be angry. I’d be more than angry. If they don’t like working for you then they should go.

Tip Three: Don’t buy an employers threat to sue your or the new company if you quit.

Some employers may skip the counteroffer route and simply threaten to sue you if you take the new offer. First, you don’t really want to work for a company that threatens to sue you. Second, in all likelihood they won’t sue you because they don’t have a case. Here in Texas the law says that the loser pays – it makes it hard to use lawsuits as intimidation. Your employer doesn’t have a case and he knows it and once he realizes that if you call his bluff he will have to pay your legal expenses he will drop the matter. In fact, your new employer will likely cover your legal costs if they are really interested in having you on board (ShopSavvy will).

If you have ever attempted to raise capital for your startup idea you are in pretty good company. Once you have actually raised capital for your startup idea you are part of a relatively exclusive club. Your close friends and family (who know how long you have been working on raising a round) will congratulate you. The other members of your team will want to celebrate. The PR folks will prepare a press release and try to get TechCrunch interested in the funding story. But, if you are like me, you might not feel entirely comfortable accepting congratulations or celebrating or even getting some TechCrunch love.

Raising money is a lot of work. First, you have to come up with a startup idea that resonates with investors – if it doesn’t resonate they won’t meet with you. Of course getting an investor to meet with you based on an elevator pitch is pretty easy once you figure out what sort of investments they are looking for (assuming that is the sort of business you want to start). Once the meetings begin you will experience a roller coaster of excitement, disappointment and despair. Some investors will LOVE your idea, your team and generally be ready to put a term sheet together only to learn their partners aren’t the least bit interested in having your deal on their website. If you are lucky you will hear no a LOT. If you aren’t as lucky you will hear a lot of maybes. But eventually, you might get a term sheet. Of course once you get the term sheet you are on your own 10th yard line. You still must negotiate the terms and agree on a final term sheet. Once you have signed the term sheet you are on the 50th yard line. Of course sometimes closing is harder than you think. Papering disclosures, employment agreements, charters, financial statements – all can throw a wrench into a deal. When you finally get the wire you are likely so exhausted you may feel relieved, but I would argue that you are actually back on your own 10th yard line.

The congratulations, celebrations and press coverage should make you feel uncomfortable. Your team won’t understand at first, but raising outside capital is a HUGE responsibility and you should start feeling the pressure at about the same time the wire hits the bank. Your investor believed in you, your team and your idea – enough to put their hard earned treasure at risk. While your Mom, Dad and close friends were more than happy to cheer you on – how many of them wrote checks to fund your deal? Maybe a few, but generally encouragement is free. Your investor is not looking for a standard return – he is specifically looking for outsized returns 10x is the norm. For every dollar you spend you have to figure out how to make it worth $10. People who can do that are few and far in between. If you think the venture backed entrepreneurs is exclusive – try getting in the ‘provided outsized returns to investors’ club – it is downright lonely there. Outside capital isn’t for every startup or every entrepreneur, but if you decide to accept it be sure you understand the responsibility you have placed firmly on your shoulders.

‘Slide to Pay’ is an awesome feature. I simply scan the book, find the blue ‘buy it now’ button next to the retailer, tap it, review my order and ‘slide to pay’. Seconds later (much faster than I could buy from the same website on my Mac) I get confirmation that the book is on its way to my office. Neat. Over the coming weeks (in preparation for Christmas) we will be adding 20-30 new retailers.

In the last five days more than 4677 users have created wallets. If you would create one and buy something I would love your feedback. Holiday shopping in 2011 won’t be the same if you do – I promise. Here is a quick video of me using the wallet feature in ShopSavvy:

I just wanted to thank a few co-conspirators including Mark Cuban, Jeff Clavier, Dave McClure, David Cohen, Jay Adelson, Gabriella Draney and Aaron Patzer. Each allowed us to use their names as investors and help spread the word via Twitter, Facebook and their blogs. This was the first time we included third-parties in our prank. I also wanted to thank Sequioa and the team from Color for giving us the idea for GreyScale – we couldn’t have done it without you guys. Finally, if you are actually interested in developing GreyScale we are willing to transfer all of the IP as well as the $41 we collected in exchange for 2% of the new company (keep us posted).