Becoming an entrepreneur should be a career choice for anyone. At ExtendNode, we want to empower you to make that happen.

ExtendNode was born with a desire to empower aspiring entrepreneurs to pursue their dreams by providing accessible resources. The publication ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs on Medium is the first pilot program of ExtendNode, aiming to be a platform dedicated to sharing knowledge and stories written by and for founders, business leaders, and investors.

2019 Review: birth

The facts:

• The publication officially launched in September and made an open invitation and guideline for writers to easily find us to share their insights with our readers.
• Resource Center was created in October to display the templates and tools created by writers for business owners to download and use.
• 14 writers contributed (8 founders, 5 business leaders, 1 investor) contributed 30 articles on startup knowledge and stories since launch.
• 92 Tweets and 31 Instagram posts were made to feature the articles since launch.

The learnings:

The publication has grown in a very organic way. We’ve attracted writers who share the same heart like us, empowering aspiring entrepreneurs. Though we wanted to publish every good article on the platform, we intend to be disciplined and strict on the themes we’ve chosen for 2019 (how-to startup, Asia market, entrepreneurship). We’ve said no to fantastic writers on their articles that don’t seem to be relevant to such themes.

It has proven that entrepreneurship is mostly about self-taught, ideally with community support. Most people are happy to give (some capacities and empathy) and take (some resources and inspiration). A publication is the very least form of an intermediary to serve the need and demand. However, after months of the experiment, I’ve begun to strongly sense this is not sufficient for our readers as well as writers. The content is produced without knowing the specific need of the readers, and the readers cannot interact with writers on the topic in a proactive way.

Medium is a great platform and I cannot be more grateful for its thoughtful design with readers as the center. They’re reinventing the reading experience. However, I realized that learning differentiates from reading quite a lot. Reading can be purely out of curiosity. Learning, on the other hand, requires clarified goals, applicable knowledge, community interactins, and real case-solving tools. Therefore, for our readers, the aspiring entrepreneurs who are eager to learn and then apply the learning to real problems may need more than a conventional publication.

2020 Outlook: budding

We want to shift the angles more towards the groups we serve and the problems they have: What do aspiring entrepreneurs need? What are the problems they’re facing? What can we do to make them improve and progress, little by little? Can we deep dive into the common questions in the following dimensions?

We don’t know all the answers and have yet to make detailed plans. But we will make efforts in the directions where we can make a better platform for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Problem first. In order to do these, we will firstly be more focused. We intend to re-design the themes from a founder’s perspective and remove the rest, such as market insight (Asia market).

Crowd wisdom. Best practices are not brought by one person but by many people. A better index and search platform on repeated questions asked by founders and business owners will be very helpful.

Community support. Becoming a business owner requires lots of mental exercises. It could be a very lonely journey. A place where you can share your struggles and relate to others’ problems is essential.

2020 is the beginning of another decade. I am really excited to see more entrepreneurs who live out their dreams and ExtendNode can play a part in that.

The Founder of ExtendNode

Cloris

ExtendNode 2019 Annual Letter was originally published in ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

This is Cloris Guo, the creator of the publication ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs (formerly ExtendNode). This is the first time we’re reaching out to our followers. We want to thank you for becoming a part of our community to empower entrepreneurs!

We’ve just published an article that states our vision, mission, values, rules, and tips for writers and readers, as well as how entrepreneurs can share their stories on this publication step by step. It’s an open invitation for entrepreneurs to write to support other entrepreneurs. We expect more entrepreneurs to join us and share their insights through us.

All of our writers are entrepreneurs. They share genuine reflections, first-hand experiences, and valuable expertise with our readers to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship. If you have a good story that you believe could benefit other entrepreneurs, we humbly ask you to share that story with us. If you’re worried that you might not be a good writer (we hear that repeatedly from founders who are afraid to write), please know that few content contributors on ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs are professional writers. They are entrepreneurs who write to share. Writing is a powerful tool, and conveying your insights is the goal.

Enjoy your reading on ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs! And we’re always happy to receive suggestions from our readers and writers. Send us any notes at business@extendnode.com.

Have a great day!

Cloris

Thank you for partnering with ExtendNode to empower entrepreneurs was originally published in ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Becoming an entrepreneur should be a career choice for anyone. At ExtendNode, we want to empower you to make that happen.

The vision of ExtendNode

Anyone can become an entrepreneur and make an impact on society with accessible resources.

The mission of ExtendNode

ExtendNode commits to democratizing the access of opportunities to building a community and platform where entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs can connect and support each other, and find resources like knowledge, partners, investors, customers, teammates to launch and grow business across the globe.

What we do on Medium

ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs is a publication on Medium. It focuses on sharing educational know-how and inspirational stories written for and by founders, business leaders, and investors.

What we will do beyond Medium

ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs is just the beginning. We are consistently working towards fulfilling our mission. We will let our content contributors and readers know when we launch new features.

Who the content contributors are

(Aspiring) entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors

Who the readers are

(Aspiring) entrepreneurs, business leaders, investors

Three themes we cover

• How-to do Startup: We believe first-hand insights are most valuable for other entrepreneurs. It may be about the business launch, fundraising, product design, marketing, sales, hiring, culture, or any other business know-how. (Examples: building MVP, fundraising, PR, building a remote team)
• Entrepreneurship: A true story is the best testimony to inspire peers. We love stories about struggles and growth, and we share them with others to show support and encouragement. We particularly encourage women leaders to share their voice on our platform. (Examples: women leadership, personal growth)
• Resource Center: We are inspired by the generosity of entrepreneurs to share business tools, platforms, and templates with other entrepreneurs. We dedicate a featured page for easier search and access to such content.

Channels where we distribute your stories besides Medium

• ExtendNode’s Twitter account: We share every article on Twitter. If you share your Twitter account with us in the submission form, we will @ you on Twitter when we share your story.
• ExtendNode’s Instagram account: Our editors will feature some articles on Instagram by making a specially designed post about the article and the writer (check our Instagram for example). If you share your Instagram account with us in the submission form, we will @ you on Instagram when we share your story.
• We are considering more distribution channels. We will let our readers and writers know when we add new ones. Also, feel free to give us suggestions at business@extendnode.com.

How to submit your article

• Step 1 Create a free account: You need to register a medium account (free). You don’t need to pay to become a member to submit your article.
• Step 2 Prepare the story: You may either write a post on Medium or import a story to Medium.
• Step 3 Share your story with us: Use this Google Form to submit your story and share other information with us. Feel free to leave us any notes/questions you have in the submission form if you have any. If you are introducing resources to other entrepreneurs and would like to display your article on the Resource Center page, leave a note to us.
• Step 4 We will review and respond to you: We usually will get back to you within 3 days and let you know whether we would publish your article or not. We will use the email you provided in the submission form to contact you.
• Step 5 Officially submit your story to ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs: Follow these instructions to submit your story to us.
• Step 6 Editorial by our editors before publishing: Our editors may edit your stories for the following before publishing: grammatical errors, tags, subtitles, and descriptions.
• Step 7 Publishing by us: You will receive a notification from Medium once the article is published. We will also share your story on Twitter and Instagram if our editors choose to feature your article.

Do’s on ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs

• Be useful: ExtendNode is built to help entrepreneurs and aspirational entrepreneurs. We want the stories to be either applicable or motivational for our readers.
• Tell the truth: Being an entrepreneur is hard. We want to hear the truth and be there for everyone, even though it involves frustration and loneliness. But these stories are most powerful.

Don’t on ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs

• Violate Medium’s rules.
• Remove your published article from ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs within 3 months after it’s published.
• Revise your published article substantially or make the content no longer relevant to ExtendNode’s themes or inconsistent with ExtendNode’s values.

Tips for writing

• The Medium help center is the best resource to master Medium features.
• Unsplash has tons of beautiful free pictures to use as a story image.
• Canva offers great tools to design and edit pictures.
• Creating a profile page for yourself is an effective way to attract and interact with your readers and other writers.
• Read Medium’s articles about #Writing and #Writing Tips to improve your writing skills over time.
• You may choose to become a Medium Partner (again, you don’t have to be a paid member) and earn money from Medium (not from ExtendNode). We think most of our writers don’t write to earn money but it’s a nice encouragement to see the reward from Meidum.
• If you are introducing resources such as tools, platforms, and templates, take a look at the Resource Center.

Tips for maximizing the usage of ExtendNode’s network

• Share as an entrepreneur: Don’t be afraid of writing. Focus on sharing. We are not writers. We are entrepreneurs who write to share.
• Interact with other members: If you see articles you really like, clap for the writer to show your appreciation. You may even write a response or leave a note to start a conversation with the writer. Who knows, this may lead to some great friendship or business opportunity.
• Be proactive with us: If you have great ideas for making ExtendNode more helpful for entrepreneurs and aspiring entrepreneurs, feel free to reach out to chief editor Cloris Guo or shoot an email to business@extendnode.com.

Last but not least

• ExtendNode is evolving and we try to be consistent with our mission and values. We reserve the right to edit photographs and copy where necessary. And we reserve the right to unpublish a story that violates rules, which we may update from time to time. We reserve the right to remove the writer of such stories from our contributor list.
• You are always welcome to share with us any questions and thoughts about ExtendNode by sending us an email at business@extendnode.com.

Partner with ExtendNode to Empower Entrepreneurs was originally published in ExtendNode’s Blogs for Entrepreneurs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.