How to Sabotage Your Fundraising Efforts
If you have a truly compelling product and the right team in place to make it happen and you're STILL having trouble getting investors to take notice, you probably think…
Avoid Corrosive Influences and Thrive
As a startup CEO, your interpersonal skills are only a small part of what is needed to manage and motivate your team. Providing recognition, incentives, and clear goals are not…
Happiness is the True Reward of Entrepreneurship
Building a startup is risky, requires hard work and total dedication, and initially offers low pay. Yet, many entrepreneurs are the happiest people I know. On the other hand, I…
What Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Spin-Offs
You would think that a startup spun off by a mature parent company would have a considerable survival advantage over the lowly startup. Yet spin-offs often fail in the real…
Investors are Wary of R&D Black Holes
Many entrepreneurs believe that investors are happy to fund research and development efforts on blue-sky technologies like superconductivity or cancer. In reality, most investors want their dollars to go towards…
Persuasion: The Key to Entrepreneurial Success
Being a good entrepreneur means being able to effectively convince an investor that you have a great idea, persuade partners that your approach is right, and convince potential customers that…
Don’t Let Procrastination Kill Your Startup
One of the toughest challenges of an entrepreneur in building a startup is the fact that there are so many things that you don’t know how to do, or don’t…
Understand Your Investor and Negotiate a Better Term Sheet
Every entrepreneur seeking funding loves the challenge of getting customers and investors excited, but dreads the thought of negotiating the terms of a deal with potential investors. They are naturally…
Funding Scams are Everywhere
Some aspiring entrepreneurs are so desperate for funding, or naïve, that they ignore the obvious signs of scams and rip-offs on the Internet, praying for a windfall. One would think…
Startup Risks Worth Taking
Most entrepreneurs think that risk is just an “occupational hazard” that can be minimized or eliminated by a smart businessman. That way of thinking is simplistic and wrong. In reality,…