Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

As of today, I will have published an article here for entrepreneurs and startups every day for the last 1001 days, since I started Startup Professionals Musings near the close of 2008. I still plan to publish on this blog occasionally, as well as more frequently on my blogs at Forbes , Huffington Post , and others.

Entrepreneur 96

Entrepreneur Startup Blogging Social Media 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2014

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided.

Outsource Development 92

Outsource Development Outsource Entrepreneur Startup 92

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 17, 2013

For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return. One way to learn is to understand better how successful entrepreneurs approach risk, and look at actual strategies they use for success. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth.

Entrepreneur 117

Entrepreneur Startup Advertising Social Media 117

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 18, 2020

Here are the key principles I recommend as an advisor to many entrepreneurs: Start your business in your own home. Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. But isn’t that why you signed up to be an entrepreneur in the first place?

Social Media 169

Social Media Startup Equity Summary 169

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 13, 2011

Or, as always, summary notes available below. Brad on blogging. How did you start blogging? “My I decided well if I am going to be investing in this stuff at least I need to understand what it’s like to have a blog, to be generating content, and it was quite interesting at the very, very beginning.“. was starting.

Venture Capital 288

Venture Capital Startup Technical Review Software Review 288

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 25, 2015

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided.

Outsource Development 104

Outsource Development Outsource Startup Summary 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2012

Publish a regular blog, contribute to relevant social networks, and write a “white paper” on your technology. In summary, a startup with no website, or a website with no credibility will kill your business. They will exit quickly. Show evidence of your expertise.

Search Engine Optimization 96

Search Engine Optimization Entrepreneur Sites Advertising 96

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 22, 2018

He is regarded by many as the number-one authority on virtual staffing and personal outsourcing, and is himself a successful entrepreneur based in the Philippines. I was impressed with his summary of the top ten outsourcing mistakes made by entrepreneurs, followed by real guidance on how they can and should be avoided.

Outsource Development 72

Outsource Development Outsource Summary Training 72

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 12, 2011

Chris Dixon is one of my favorite people in tech and writes one of the few blogs I read religiously. He is the CEO of Hunch , company that I believe is solving a very big problem that I have been telling entrepreneurs needs to be solved for the past 2 years. I’ve also found him to not be dogmatic either.

Technical Review 281

Technical Review Venture Capital Startup Artificial Inteligence 281

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 20, 2011

If you read this blog often you'll know that I'm a huge fan of First Round Capital. I think you'll enjoy hearing him, but if you're in a rush check out the summary notes below. The Exchange Fund – This allows the entrepreneurs to diversify their founders stock into other portfolio companies stock. What is ideal board structure?

Capital 284

Capital Venture Capital Technical Review Startup 284

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2010

I’m going to save that for a future blog post. Entrepreneurs always walk away with new relationships, knowledge, deal discussions and enthusiasm. And it’s his mantra for successful entrepreneurs, “you need to be extremely focused on the details.” Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Start-up Advice Startup Advice.

Startup 279

Startup Venture Capital Tips Custom Development 279

InfoChachkie

AUGUST 11, 2011

What follows is a summary which paraphrases Naval’s responses. Venture Hacks is educating entrepreneurs on the game theory of how to raise venture capital. One of the things AngelList helps us do is raise our brand, have a pre-existing relationship with many, many entrepreneurs and give us access into great deals.

Startup 273

Startup Software Review Summary Technical Review 273

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 20, 2018

As a mentor to startups and new entrepreneurs, I continue to hear the refrain that business plans are no longer required for a new startup, since investors never read them anyway. For aspiring entrepreneurs, or if your last startup failed, it’s all about standing out above the crowd of others like you, and demonstrating your readiness.

Startup 65

Startup Entrepreneur Slides Content 65

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2014

Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. I am VERY careful in board meetings and in startup pitches to tell entrepreneurs, “I feel very strongly about my opinion on this topic. There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. What is a founder to do?

Startup 407

Startup Framework CTO Coach Sales 407

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 3, 2014

I grew to appreciate this approach much more when I interviewed a popular serial entrepreneur, Rich Christiansen a while back, who has done almost 30 businesses wholly by bootstrapping. All you need is a blog, Twitter, email, some business card stock, and a little creativity. Practice creative marketing. Don’t think about the exit.

Organization 111

Organization Startup Summary Entrepreneur 111

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 17, 2012

In his blog he says, “I responded that I thought it was stupid. So his Twitter handle is @infoarbitrage and his excellent (must read) blog is Information Arbitrage. Like they truly understood entrepreneurs. When I chose a name for my blog, I spent days thinking through what I wanted to represent. LA should be LA.”

Startup 304

Startup Venture Capital Los Angeles Woodland Hills 304

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 25, 2013

After all, I am no stranger to the publicly expressing the frustrations of dealing with the downside of this industry as I wrote about in 2006 when I was an entrepreneur. The best VCs don’t try to help entrepreneurs. Get to the entrepreneurs earlier next time. Get to the entrepreneurs earlier next time.

Venture Capital 374

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Invest Funding 374

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 13, 2018

Remember, I was an entrepreneur for 10 years before a VC). Even though I got a “no” he helped me understand why I wasn’t a fit for him and that always set the bar for how I wanted to treat entrepreneurs?—?friendly, This goes into the heart of my controversial blog post (coming soon! friendly, but direct in my thoughts.

Venture Capital 332

Venture Capital Funding Startup Sales 332

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 18, 2010

The Executive Summary for a bank lending plan should be a literal summary of the entire business plan, with a paragraph roughly devoted to the product/service, market, industry, marketing, and management. Make the repayment terms as clear as possible at either the beginning or end of the Executive Summary. compelling.

Writing 97

Writing Summary Ideas Research 97

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

Seth Levine of Foundry Group addresses this important topic this morning on his blog with a post, “ Has Convertible Debt Won ?&# I’ve written about the topic of convertible debt at length before specifically about how angels & entrepreneurs should think about pricing. “Convertible notes have won.

Equity 319

Equity Pricing Venture Capital Entrepreneur 319

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

I shifted my thinking a few years ago after I read Tim Ferris’s book The Four Hour Workweek (link is to a short summary I wrote). You’re writing a freaking blog post! I do what I wish all entrepreneurs would do. It’s an entrepreneur with whom I’ve been wanting to work for 6 years. I think so. [I

Email 314

Email Product Startup Writing 314

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 10, 2010

An entrepreneur recently sent me an @ reply message on Twitter asking for some help with a decision coming up in his business. But many well intentioned entrepreneurs are sloppy about how they ask so I’d like to give you some guidelines to help. Fred Wilson nailed this in his “double opt in&# blog post.

Help 332

Help Email Mentor Blogging 332

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 20, 2012

For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return. One way to learn is to understand better how successful entrepreneurs approach risk, and look at actual strategies they use for success. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth.

Entrepreneur 101

Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media Competition 101

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2011

A few weeks ago I was reading a blog post by MG Siegler that really struck a chord. I get presentations from aspiring entrepreneurs. Having been an entrepreneur for near-on a decade and having pitched in 100 VC meetings I hated getting no feedback. In Summary. ” but I cared more about the outcome and the lesson.

Press 337

Press Venture Capital Doc Summary 337

InfoChachkie

SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Each week he brought in passionate and successful entrepreneurs to speak to his students and give advice about the different facets of creating a startup. Some of these influential speakers included Kevin O’Connor, founder of FindTheBest.com & DoubleClick and Simon Dixon, CEO of Idea Engineering.

Class 231

Class Startup Santa Barbara RSS 231

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 17, 2017

They flocked to businesses like Apple, when influencer Steve Jobs was at the helm, and anxiously await the next moves from visible entrepreneurs, including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. I found a good summary of these attributes in a recent book, “ The Old School Advantage ,” by an expert on interpersonal communication, J.

Social Media 58

Social Media Customer Custom Entrepreneur 58

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 13, 2011

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I talked about this in the TWiVC video but I didn’t do a good enough job of writing it up in the summary notes in the post. And did I really just try to drop an SAT word into my blog post? That notes only told part of the story. No, the ideas aren’t conflicting.

Venture Capital 299

Venture Capital Slides Technical Advisors Startup 299

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 14, 2015

How do you have time for all your entrepreneurs? I don’t know Ezra yet but since he’s taking the time to blog (which I hugesly respect) and share thoughts I thought I’d take him up on his challenge and also spill the beans on my secrets. On blogging I blog because I love it. My other secret on blogging?

Blogging 150

Blogging Writing Email Startup 150

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2010

With approximately $60 billion in startup funding coming from friends and family, entrepreneurs must consider this as an option as they seek to launch new businesses. Today's guest blog is by Adam Hoeksema, founder of the ExecutivePlan. His blog is [link]. Money issues between friends and family can ruin relationships.

Funding 90

Funding Startup Blogging Invest 90

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 20, 2013

Publish a regular blog, contribute to relevant social networks, and write a “white paper” on your technology. In summary, a startup with no website, or a website with no credibility will kill your business. entrepreneur startup website business' They will exit quickly. Show evidence of your expertise. Marty Zwilling.

Search Engine Optimization 105

Search Engine Optimization Startup Advertising SEO 105

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 29, 2010

We received so much positive feedback from our This Week in Venture Capital show walking through valuation calculations & term sheets that we decided to do a Q&A show this week to address topics that entrepreneurs want to learn about. on the entrepreneur side of the table) when I raised at too high of a price. This is wrong.

Venture Capital 282

Venture Capital Capital Startup Pricing 282

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 6, 2016

Here are the key principles I recommend as an advisor to many entrepreneurs: Start your business in your own home. Use multiple social-media channels, blogging, email and voicemail to build the same image and responsiveness as larger competitors. But isn’t that why you signed up to be an entrepreneur in the first place?

Social Media 60

Social Media Startup Equity Entrepreneur 60

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 6, 2014

And here’s an important point that I think modern entrepreneurs often forget: Investors are “co-owners” of your business. There are just as many bad entrepreneurs who do bad things. It surprises me that this is even controversial but in this day-and-age it sometimes is.

Startup 325

Startup Sales Technical Review Software Review 325

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

For true entrepreneurs, risk is viewed as a positive, with its implied challenge to overcome the unknown and hitting the big return. One way to learn is to understand better how successful entrepreneurs approach risk, and look at actual strategies they use for success. Start with social media, blogging, and word-of-mouth.

Tips 89

Tips Entrepreneur Advertising Social Media 89

Both Sides of the Table

DECEMBER 7, 2009

But so that you finish reading my post first I’ll give you the summary version – when approaching somebody at a show be polite / respectful of time, try to be introduced if possible and never assume the person remembers who you are. Then I get people sending me Twitter comments, blog comments and tons & tons of email intros.

Startup 322

Startup Conference Email Venture Capital 322

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

And for some strange reason entrepreneurs didn’t share this information. I’ve started from day one trying to build total transparency into my process with entrepreneurs. This starts with understanding how VCs and entrepreneurs often see valuation differently. Back then VentureHacks didn’t exist.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2013

A few years ago I interviewed a serial entrepreneur, Rich Christiansen , who has done almost 30 businesses wholly by bootstrapping. All you need is a blog, Twitter, email, some business card stock, and a little creativity. In summary, watch your costs, trust your gut, and drive forward with all the passion in your dream.

Equity 96

Equity Startup Summary Tips 96