Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

In my consulting work, when I ask team members in startups and small businesses how they know whether they are doing a good job, the typical response I get is “Nobody has yelled at me today,” or “No news is good news.” One mistake to avoid in all cases is to dress up praise as a comparison to others , such as “You were the best speaker today.”

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 29, 2013

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 17, 2013

Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In that sense, you should think of a mentor more like your advisor who has done all he can. Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. Friends tell you what you want to hear.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2023

The best startups give everyone business cards and encourage team members to talk about the business with anyone who should be interested. A single marketing coordinator can accelerate your efforts by being the coach and mentoring key members of the team on soft marketing. Empower engagement.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2020

Entrepreneurs inherently understand that they have to be the initial leader of their startup, but often they don’t have the experience or the training to know where their leadership competencies lie, or how to build a leadership team. They are excellent mentors and coaches, but have a strong need to be admired and respected in return.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 9, 2023

I’m sure you can imagine how much that impacts any business or startup’s ability to react to changing customer needs and growth opportunities, no matter how insightful their leaders. Listen to everyone's input, encourage people to speak up, and repeat back what you have heard. Facilitate coaching and mentoring, inside and outside.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 15, 2012

Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In that sense, you should think of a mentor more like your advisor who has done all he can. Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. Friends tell you what you want to hear.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2022

Especially when distractions and emotions are high , it will help your focus to break down large challenges and crises into smaller elements to get things started and give you a sense of progress along the way. The challenge for many bosses is to recognize when their team should be coaching them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 28, 2017

As a long-time mentor and business advisor, I find it ironic that many look only to friends for advice. They forget that friends tell you what you want to hear, while good mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you probably don’t need the mentor anymore, but you always need the friend.

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SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

A large part of this conversation is what kinds of advisors startups should be looking for. A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. We both felt that most startups are not taking a very systematic approach to defining with they need in terms of advisors. Connected Advisors?

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socalTECH

JANUARY 7, 2019

My biggest takeaway this year was truly understanding the strength and cohesion of the Los Angeles startup community. There was no monetary reward for those who participated (and Startup Boost does not take fees or equity from the companies that we help). What was the biggest lesson you learned this year?

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2023

As an experienced business professional and mentor, I find that most successful peers will admit that they love what they do. Therefore, I was pleased to see some good insights and recommendations in a new book, “ Intrinsic Motivation ,” by Stefan Falk, a McKinsey & Company performance coach.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 3, 2014

I believe you can be much more productive, as well as a more effective leader, if you approach most meetings as mentoring opportunities, and limit them to five minutes. With the five-minute mentoring approach, the mentee asks for your support in their decision, or asks for your insight on the considerations for them making a future decision.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2012

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. I’d say 20% of startups I see level-up early after their A round. These are important leveling-up activities but the CEO is often still up at 10pm f **g around with QuickBooks entries.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2022

As a business advisor and investor in new startups, I see how difficult it is to make any process work, no matter how well designed, if the team is dysfunctional. Priority is placed on employee mentoring and coaching. The right people make productive processes, not the other way around.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 13, 2014

Let me start with the news that I’m excited to share with you. Startup CEO experience (Founded P.S. XO along with my good friend Soleil Moon Frye. Wonderful human being who is civically engaged, mother of 3, mentorer of younger founders, hard worker and arguer extraordinaire (so says her current Twitter bio).

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 25, 2022

After many years working in business and investing in startups, I’m convinced that the primary reason for new business and career failures is NOT a lack of skill or money, but people giving up too quickly on their dreams and goals. He went on to start many successful companies, including General Electric.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 16, 2012

I believe you can be much more productive, as well as a more effective leader, if you approach most meetings as mentoring opportunities, and limit them to five minutes. With the five-minute mentoring approach, the mentee asks for your support in their decision, or asks for your insight on the considerations for them making a future decision.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

Launchpad LA today announces it will accept applications for its third class of Los Angeles-based tech startups. To give visibility to these companies to: Sources of funding (angels / VCs), business development partners, mentors who have themselves built successful companies, the press and potential employees to hire.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 24, 2017

We all know some peers in business who could use some coaching to unleash their potential and optimize performance, but would you know how to do the job if they asked you for help? In an effort to help myself, I read a new book on this topic, “ The Master Coach ,” by Gregg Thompson. Self-centered members need coaching.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 22, 2009

This is part of my ongoing posts on Startup Advice. There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find. Bringing in a senior person who’s “done it all before&# is often a mistake in a startup. So what if you’re already a mid-stage startup.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 22, 2020

A popular myth that most of you probably believe is that startups are only for the younger generations. In fact, I see more and more evidence that new entrepreneurs are coming from the older age groups (age 45-64), and success rates move up with age. Time to think about and develop your purpose and “why.”

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 13, 2023

Yet I find in my mentoring practice that more and more team members prefer the human-centered approach and respond with more engagement and commitment. I’ve found that you can best start by asking for another perspective, whether of yourself or a team member. Develop self-awareness of your triggers.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 27, 2015

After many years of working in and starting businesses, I’m convinced that implementing new business ideas is much more difficult than coming up with the ideas. by Erica Peitler, a well-known leadership performance coach. This is an important step in self-coaching, and in coaching others on the team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2011

Mentors tell you what you need to hear. When the message is the same from both, you don’t need the mentor anymore. In that sense, you should think of a mentor more like your advisor who has done all he can. Also don’t confuse a business mentor with a business coach. Friends tell you what you want to hear.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 9, 2022

However, when aspiring leaders ask me how to ramp up their emotional intelligence, I’ve never been able to offer any real formula. This will allow you to see your strengths, weaknesses, development opportunities, and break down internal barriers to growth and change, without judgment or criticism.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 8, 2023

In reality, their effectiveness is usually more related to how well they develop their work relationships with peers and business leaders. Workships, according to workplace expert Dr. Jan Yager, refers to those workplace relationships that haven’t yet developed into full-blown friendships, but are closer than mere acquaintances.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 2, 2021

In a startup, any decision is better than no decision. Since I’m not a life coach, I can’t comment on the broader implications, but in my role as advisor to many startups, I do often find myself recommending a focus on many of his key points, which I will paraphrase here: Think in terms of action.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 18, 2016

Committees don’t create successful startups. Some will argue that people leadership is a skill you have to be born with, but I’m convinced that it can be learned from experience, mentoring, and failures. They reach to find mentors who have been there, read books on the subject, and participate in leadership development programs.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. For one-on-one coaching from the startup founder, I call this approach five-minute mentoring.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 26, 2023

Entrepreneurs inherently understand that they have to be the initial leader of their startup, but often they don’t have the experience or the training to know where their leadership competencies lie, or how to build a leadership team. They are excellent mentors and coaches, but have a strong need to be admired and respected in return.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 3, 2022

As a mentor to many early business leaders, I always emphasize that need to switch from a product focus to a team focus. You need to use active listening to unlock the underlying causes, and start giving your best encouragement and mentoring. Not showing up or consistently late to meetings.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 10, 2010

I believe you can be much more productive, as well as a more effective leader, if you approach most meetings as mentoring opportunities, and limit them to five minutes. With the mentoring approach, the mentee asks for your support in their decision, or asks for your insight on the considerations for them making a future decision.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 10, 2023

As standalone innovators, these may have trouble recognizing where the mother ship skills and expertise can be applied to develop innovation ideas properly. As a result, these people often end up disheartened. You should team up with intrapreneurs to land their ideas and translate them into the language that the company can understand.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2019

Mentoring is the number one request by Millennials in the workplace. Thus mentoring inspires loyalty all around. If you match that with commensurate training and professional development coaching, you will see their commitment, productivity, and loyalty in return. Create a culture of specific and timely feedback.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 9, 2022

One of the attributes that I often recommend to the business professionals and entrepreneurs I mentor is to always be totally accountable for your actions and ideas. In any business, accountability ideally starts at the top. Accountability requires that you manage your own efforts, as well as keep others up to speed.

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