Know Your Audience: Four Types of Business Plans
There are four basic types of business plans, each serving a different purpose and audience. How you prepare your plan depends in part on the type you are preparing: The…
Launch first, raise money second
Entrepreneurs - especially software entrepreneurs - often overestimate the resources they need to launch their ventures. This problem can usually be traced to one of two causes: The first cause…
Paul Graham’s Wisdom
If you are an entrepreneur, then Paul Graham is somebody you should listen to. You can read his essays at http://paulgraham.com/articles.html. Here are just a few of my favorite passages:…
What Makes a Good Financial Spreadsheet?
We've seen hundreds of spreadsheets, and, frankly, some are just painful to look at. In our experience, an excellent financial model is both "correct" and "user-friendly," and typically exhibits the…
Bootstrapping 101
From time to time, we will feature answers to entrepreneurs' questions here on our blog. QUESTION Dwayne in New York asks: "Being an entreprneur is all I have ever dreamed…
Who Will Save the World?
The world needs big thinkers. More specifically, the world needs entrepreneurs who can figure out how to save the world. As nations like India and China continue to develop, their…
Beware of Finders
Many entrepreneurs work with "finders" who promise to help them attract investors, usually in exchange for a large monthly retainer and a percentage of the capital raised. More often than…
Ten Big Questions: What Investors Want to Know
So you've managed to line up meetings with potential investors. Congratulations! Most aspiring entrepreneurs don't get that far. Now you're wondering what the investors want to know. Investors are busy…
Setting Priorities
As an entrepreneur starting or growing a company, you have a million things to do. Every day. How do you decide what to focus on? There are two things to…
What Kind of Lawyer Do You Need?
The answer depends on too many variables, so let's assume you're a high-tech early-stage company looking for capital with realistic prospects of doing say $50 million or more in revenue…