Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 20, 2013

It’s an enjoyable read and one I’ll bet you refer back to rather than read once and file away. ” I have long thought about and written about the personal toll that being an entrepreneur places on your life. And of course it happened while I was on the road and unavailable. You won’t regret it.

Entrepreneur 370

Entrepreneur Startup Writing Social Network 370

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 14, 2020

Creating the right company culture must be a top priority of every entrepreneur and business leader. Most entrepreneurs start from a base of one or two co-founders, and their vision and focus is on developing an innovative solution, rather than developing people. Measure and measure again, and be quick to course correct.

Organization 160

Organization Startup Entrepreneur Satisfaction 160

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 1, 2020

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. Where your competitor isn't really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. No entrepreneur has all the insights they need, and none should be so arrogant as to assume they hold all the cards.

Startup 126

Startup Outsource Competition Acquisition 126

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

The popular view of a real entrepreneur is someone with a big vision, and a stubborn determination to charge straight ahead through any obstacle and make it happen. His new book on this subject, “ The Lean Startup ,” lays out how today's entrepreneurs use continuous innovation to create radically successful businesses. Platform pivot.

Entrepreneur 102

Entrepreneur Startup Platform Custom 102

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 26, 2020

As an advisor to many entrepreneurs, I still hear frequently the irrational exuberance that crowdfunding is the quick alternative for startups that are passed over by overly demanding angels or venture capital investors. Of course, if the campaign does not meet or exceed the funding objective, you get nothing.

Startup 151

Startup Equity Funding Demand 151

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 8, 2021

It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate. Of course experience is the best teacher, but you need to get the job to get the experience. If you are not starting one yourself, the next best thing is joining one as a partner, or as an early employee. According to Ford R.

Startup 168

Startup Tips Coach Networking 168

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2020

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 124

Technical Review Funding Innocal Offshore 124

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 3, 2013

Today’s higher education is responding by making more courses online and available to people outside of physical boundaries. We talked about how business school historically hasn’t positioned entrepreneurs well for success. I wrote about that before in a post about “ whether MBAs are necessary for entrepreneurs.

Venture Capital 403

Venture Capital Education Offshore Outsource Development 403

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 8, 2013

So what’s an entrepreneur to do to get his new business noticed these days? Most entrepreneurs I know are too busy creating a compelling product to give proper focus to the four phases of building a people and media platform that Hyatt says are equally critical for long-term success: Platform creation prior to launch. How about yours?

Platform 105

Platform Entrepreneur Startup Social Media 105

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 18, 2014

If the deal is from out of your geography and/or out of your focus area or a deal is being referred by a well-know investor who normally co-invests with similar syndicates – at least ask yourself, “Why am I so lucky to be getting this call.” I seek out great entrepreneurs. I wrote here about why I avoid party rounds.

Venture Capital 337

Venture Capital Invest Ideas Entrepreneur 337

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 8, 2014

Ability to source information easily to help build a thesis around companies / industries / competition. Great networking skills, which are critical when you want to be about to reference entrepreneurs & concepts and bounce your ideas off of other people in the industry. ” My experience tells me the same.

Help 365

Help Invest Venture Capital Technical Review 365

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 22, 2014

It’s insanely competitive to get into our industry so most have degrees from institutions like Stanford, Harvard, Wharton and University of Chicago (blatant plug ;-). Of course it is super helpful if a VC can drop you in to important people for business development, recruiting, PR, sales and eventually M&A. Connections?

Venture Capital 364

Venture Capital Coach Writing SaaS 364

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2018

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. Where your competitor isn't really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. No entrepreneur has all the insights they need, and none should be so arrogant as to assume they hold all the cards.

Startup 59

Startup Outsource Competition Acquisition 59

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2014

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 103

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 103

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 14, 2014

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. Where your competitor isn''t really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. No entrepreneur has all the insights they need, and none should be so arrogant as to assume they hold all the cards.

Startup 97

Startup Entrepreneur Outsource Competition 97

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2018

There is an old management saying, “measure twice, cut once” which refers to the benefit of doing some planning. The next pass is the “competitive pass”?—?have As an investor I can tell you that when I meet an entrepreneur who knows very little about our fund or me as an individual it’s a huge turn off.

Funding 215

Funding Startup Venture Capital News 215

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 3, 2015

And as I’ve written about before – building a personal brand is extremely important in today’s competitive job market. In 2006 when I was a budding entrepreneur building my second startup I ran into a young (ish) enthusiastic founder of an electronic signature company called EchoSign. Here’s how he did it.

SaaS 150

SaaS Venture Capital Conference Technical Review 150

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 13, 2015

Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should select only social media for marketing, or stick with digital media, or just count on traditional media. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other.

Social Media 108

Social Media Media Marketing Resource 108

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2017

The crypto in cryptocurrency is of course referring to cryptography on the ability to encrypt your transactions so they can’t be modified after they have been written to the blockchain. This market structure in which the few, large players use their market position to eliminate competition is inevitable.

Course 280

Course Startup Framework Marketing 280

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 10, 2016

Entrepreneurs seem to have blinders on when looking at competitors. Where your competitor isn't really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. No entrepreneur has all the insights they need, and none should be so arrogant as to assume they hold all the cards.

Startup 55

Startup Outsource Competition Entrepreneur 55

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 27, 2016

Struggling entrepreneurs are often so happy to get a funding offer that they neglect the recommended reverse due diligence on the investors. Reverse due diligence on the investor is a comparable process whereby the entrepreneur seeks to validate the track record, operating style, and motivation of every potential partner.

Technical Review 63

Technical Review Innocal Offshore Entrepreneur 63

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 11, 2010

If you are in this second category, you probably don’t like the references behind your back that you are a “control freak” or a “micro-manager.” Almost every entrepreneur needs to improve their skills in this area, so I did some research in the basic principles. Tags: entrepreneur startup delegate authority business.

Entrepreneur 52

Entrepreneur Startup SEO Social Media 52

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

A reminder that it is important for all entrepreneurs is to remember to be careful about “deal drift.” We were trying to optimize around a few criteria: price, size of round, number of syndicate partners and, of course, terms. Conversely I offered the same deal to another entrepreneur who decided to shop around longer.

Venture Capital 301

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Technical Advisors 301

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 7, 2016

Creating the right company culture must be a top priority of every entrepreneur and business leader. Most entrepreneurs start from a base of one or two co-founders, and their vision and focus is on developing an innovative solution, rather than developing people. Measure and measure again, and be quick to course correct.

Company 59

Company Companies Organization Startup 59

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 21, 2010

I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers &# written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ). Oh, they didn’t cover that in your Stanford CS course? I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed.

Startup 318

Startup IP Southern California Entrepreneur 318

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 31, 2012

So what’s an entrepreneur to do to get his new business noticed these days? Most entrepreneurs I know are too busy creating a compelling product to give proper focus to the four phases of building a people and media platform that are equally critical for long-term success: Platform creation prior to launch.

Startup 104

Startup Social Media Platform Blogging 104

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 10, 2011

In my ongoing quest to get you good transcripts of the wonderful interviews we’ve done in the past, I present you with one amazing interview here with Tom McInerney – a friend, co-investor, former entrepreneur turned angel investor and “wizard of Oz&# behind the scenes at the uber hot startup Klout. 0:28:00) & (0:31:27).

Angel 302

Angel Startup Ideas .Net 302

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 23, 2017

Entrepreneurs and startups often ask if they should select only social media for marketing, or stick with digital media, or just count on traditional media. None should be considered competitive mutually exclusive to any other. Assimilate available resources to determine the level of rollout.

Media 59

Media Marketing Social Media Resource 59

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2012

Of course much of it is conflicting. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. I raised money as an entrepreneur, like you, in 1999, 2000, 2001, 2003 and 2005 for two different companies. And of course I’ve sat on the other side of the table: As a VC.

Develop 366

Develop Development Funding Venture Capital 366

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 14, 2013

It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate. Of course experience is the best teacher, but you need to get the job to get the experience. entrepreneur startup employment career business' According to Ford R. Invest in career coaching. Actively work the network. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 89

Startup Coach Entrepreneur Networking 89

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 20, 2010

He was also often referred to as a “hotdog” for his self-promotional antics and lackadaisical on-field play. As such, you are likely better off allowing your competition to hire the Reggie Jacksons of the startup world and focus your efforts on recruiting high performing, low maintenance teammates, like Cal Ripkin. _.

Statistics 212

Statistics Press Product Startup 212

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2011

It takes much the same preparation to make you the best entrepreneur, or the best job candidate. Of course experience is the best teacher, but you need to get the job to get the experience. If you adopt a defeatist attitude or wait for the job to find you, entrepreneurs will quickly see this, and you will be defeated.

Startup 94

Startup Coach Entrepreneur Networking 94

InfoChachkie

OCTOBER 10, 2011

In the course of my recent interview with Guy Kawasaki , author and former Apple Evangelist, Guy describes Steve Jobs as: “… the world’s greatest CEO, ever. I shall refer to the photographer as “Mac” for the remainder of this article. I gathered ten such examples which are particularly relevant to entrepreneurs.

Tips 279

Tips Startup Santa Barbara Entrepreneur 279

InfoChachkie

APRIL 3, 2012

They profess to be entrepreneurs, but are they actually Wantrepreneurs? A Wantrepreneur is a well-intentioned person who wants to be an entrepreneur, but does not have the skills, personality and or risk profile to be successful. Did you play any team or individual sports competitively? free weekly Infochachkie articles!

Entrepreneur 219

Entrepreneur Startup Equity Sample 219

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2012

It’s a great survival strategy for small companies or entrepreneurs, and a good expansion strategy for even the largest companies. If your "competitor" isn't really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. Cross endorsement. Marty Zwilling.

Company 96

Company Companies Startup Examples 96

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 4, 2011

It’s a great survival strategy for small companies or entrepreneurs, and a good expansion strategy for even the largest companies. If your "competitor" isn't really competing with your direct market, you can refer business to each other without anyone losing customers. Cross endorsement. Marty Zwilling.

Startup 90

Startup Examples Custom Customer 90

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

These are all dumb reason to invest – of course. So let’s consider a bad (but likely) scenario where either you don’t hit your targets, the market sours or competition is kicking your butt making it hard to fund raise. And I always encourage entrepreneurs to do reference checking. But it happens.

Venture Capital 314

Venture Capital Startup Invest Funding 314