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Entrepreneurs: Employment law is not on your side!

Berkonomics

Small companies most often scrape by with borrowed or invested funds, doing everything possible to grow and prosper with limited resources. So, it is like a punch in the gut when an employee makes a claim against the company for a perceived or actual but unintentional violation of a law or regulation. So, my advice is simple.

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Need money? Read this!

Berkonomics

Friends, family and fools: [Email readers, continue here…] This term, although pejorative, describes the typical mix of early investors in a small, young growing business. And even with the significant cost of credit card debt, many entrepreneurs aggressively use existing cards to finance a startup.

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Have you heard the rule of the thirds?

Berkonomics

Think of startups and early stage businesses whose entrepreneurs you know. We should think of the creation and growth of a high valued company as the sum of three parts, with three distinct classes of participants helping to make real value out of a raw start-up. One: The entrepreneur. Two: Co-management.

Startup 240
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Is it your brilliant plan or your execution?

Berkonomics

Investors have to look behind the plan and at the entrepreneur and his or her team, knowing that, over time, most of us have come to the conclusion that it is the execution of the ever-changing plan, not the plan itself that makes a company a success. Anyone can build a good – or great – plan. A personal story of a pivot – Tyson style.

Summary 156
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Can you guess 10 tests for your success?

Berkonomics

Conversely, a fast-growing industry lifts most all good participants, making excellent companies excel even more and grow even faster, like a small plane flying at 150 knots with a 75-knot tailwind. Email readers, continue here…] Have you created high barriers to entry? Do you have a world-class management team?

Patents 286
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When to pivot from your original plan?

Berkonomics

My favorite example of a world class pivot comes from the CEO and board of one of my most successful investments. Green Dot Corporation was formed by an entrepreneur in the year 2001 to create a product to permit those without credit cards to purchase items on the Internet. My story of a great pivot. first appeared on BERKONOMICS.

Resource 156
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Take advantage of the good times to build stakeholder loyalty.

Berkonomics

For investors, a subsequent down round at a lower valuation than the last, or an exit opportunity at a loss are all opportunities for the affected stakeholder to show a side that can sometimes shock an entrepreneur or CEO. I have seen investors allow a company to die, rather than suffer the massive dilution of an offer by a new investor.

Layoffs 240