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6 Ways To Make You An Entrepreneur Before The Product

Startup Professionals Musings

Many of the entrepreneurs I advise or invest with spend considerable time on the Internet, keeping up with technology, customers, and competitors, but very few feel the need for an early personal presence. Every future entrepreneur should start by networking. Make your lifestyle a model of the online reputation you want.

Product 127
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If You Don’t Define Your Personal Brand the Market Will

Both Sides of the Table

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. For 1991 I was very technical and also had a lot of practical business implementation experience in technology. ” F**k.

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Three Words Entrepreneurs (and VC’s) Should Take to Heart

Both Sides of the Table

But as I rose in my career (and post MBA) I moved into a role in which I was to advise board-level executives on topics where I was expected to rapidly become an expert. Some areas were easy because they were technical and the answer was knowable or estimate-able. And I encourage entrepreneurs to triangulate as well.

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Interview with Julie Novack, PartySlate

socalTECH

I'd see these wedding blogs, but I thought, there has got to be more. He and I connected, and walked through PartySlate and what we were doing, and he immediately said he wanted to invest and become an advisor to the company. I feel strongly, that if you're going to do this, you need to be technical, or have a technical co-founder.

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10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

Most people totally advise against stealth. I actually like finding entrepreneurs who are more circumspect, less braggadocios and generally more planned about their actions. Where Stealth is Bad – I do meet entrepreneurs who clearly fall on the other side of spectrum and are totally closed. Be careful about this advice.

Marketing 380
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What is the Right Burn Rate at a Startup Company?

Both Sides of the Table

I was reading Danielle Morrill’s blog post today on whether one’s “ Startup Burn Rate is Normal. In a world where the economy only heads in one direction (read: 2009-2014) most investors & entrepreneurs forget to pay attention to gross burn. ” I highly recommend reading it. Profitability. Valuation.

Startup 383
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How to Handle a VC Presentation with No Deck

Both Sides of the Table

I wrote the summary notes in this blog post. I would argue that this mostly consists of consumer Internet companies (although not exclusively) and it is predominantly early-stage people who are product gurus and have a mildly technical bend to them. And did I really just try to drop an SAT word into my blog post?