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Startup Professionals Musings
MAY 25, 2022
You need to do the due diligence to make that decision before you sign away your equity. As a former startup investor, I was often involved with due diligence on founders, and I felt that founders should do the same on co-founders, as well as investors. They are excited about your business objectives.
Startup Professionals Musings
AUGUST 17, 2020
In my experience, consummate entrepreneurs tend come up with more startup ideas than they can ever implement, and some of the ideas may not even make business sense. But how does any entrepreneur know which ideas to implement, and which ones are best left behind? Check for intellectual property barriers in your way.
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Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 28, 2012
This is a hot topic I’ve been asked a lot about recently. When is it appropriate for a VC to call your customers? I have seen some entrepreneurs go into first meetings willing to share almost anything about their company. I have seen others who seem guarded and cloaked about what they’re working on.
Startup Professionals Musings
JANUARY 18, 2016
Most entrepreneurs work long and hard to get a handshake agreement from an investor, and then tend to relax and wait for the check to clear. What they don’t realize is that about half the investment deals fail to close at this stage, including mergers and acquisitions , during the due-diligence process.
Startup Professionals Musings
OCTOBER 10, 2021
Every technical entrepreneur is an early adopter of technology, so naturally they build things with people like themselves in mind. Unfortunately, for most solution markets, early adopters represent only 10 to 15 percent of the total opportunity, so it’s easy to get mislead on the real requirements of mainstream customers.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 7, 2021
Gerber wrote a best-selling business book called The E-Myth: Why Most Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It. The E-Myth (“Entrepreneurial Myth”) is the mistaken belief that most businesses are started by people with tangible business skills, when in fact most are started by “technicians” who know nothing about running a business.
Startup Professionals Musings
FEBRUARY 4, 2012
This is the dreaded “due diligence” process. For no good reason, this process seems shrouded in mystery, when in fact it is nothing more than a final integrity check on all aspects of your business model, team, product, customers, and plan. A good investor can do a lot to help a company, but can't make customers buy products.
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