Marc Nager might know more about the global startup ecosystem than anyone in the world.
While that statement seems hyperbolic, it’s not: Marc has spent the past six years expanding Startup Weekend — which brings startup entrepreneurs together to create a new company over the course of 54 hours — from 32 events to almost 3,000 worldwide.
Today, it’s one of the most recognized names in the industry, with close to 200,000 community members and over 23,000 teams formed in 150 countries.
“In my time with Startup Weekend, I was so fortunate. I got to meet heads of countries and work with executives from many Fortune 500 companies,” Marc tells Startups.co. “I got to work with leaders, entrepreneurial grassroots leaders from literally hundreds of c...
There's no perfect to know if you've found a great Co-Founder, but there are some really obvious ways to tell you're about to recruit a bad one!
Yet picking Co-Founders isn't something many of us will do more than once in our lifetime, so how could we possibly know what to look for? There's no absolute checklist, but there are 3 categories where most Founders don't press hard enough — Selection, Shared Cost, and Commitment.
Technically there's a fourth, which is "personality type," but that's so incredibly hard to determine in the early stages (see: all of dating and marriage) that it's almost not worth mentioning compared to the Big Three. If all of these start to sound way too familiar, it may be worth thinking about an exit strategy.
Every good startup dies a thousand deaths before it ever lives.
We don't like to believe that because it sounds awful. Who would get excited about doing anything that sounded like it was going to die a bunch of times? Yet death — in the form of setbacks, restarts, and in some cases implosions — is kind of what we do for a living as Founders.
Pretending like we're going to get through this whole thing unscathed is like picking up a video game on the hardest setting and thinking we're going to beat the entire game without ever losing a life. It just doesn't work that way.
So just like our blinking Super Mario coming back to life for the 1,000th time, we've got to learn how to play through the whole game while pretty much expecting to lose a f...
There it is:
That super awkward moment when we're about to turn the conversation with our rich Uncle Mortimer from "Well it's been great catching up on my new startup" to "Hey would you mind investing some of your hard-earned money into this venture?"
So how do we ask friends and family for money without it getting totally weird?
Is there a way to "pitch" that doesn't leave both sides feeling uncomfortable every Thanksgiving?
There are lots of different ways to ask for money, and most of them are really awful.
What we want to do is position the ask in a way that makes it clear we're asking for money, but also clear that it's not more important than the relationship.
Befor...
Many entrepreneurs have looked to mentors as a way of finding guidance and support for their startups. With the right startup mentor by your side, you can avoid pitfalls and navigate toward success. This blog post will provide strategies on how to find such perfect mentors who could take your startup journey up another notch!
Gain invaluable knowledge and experience from a startup mentor to help your business succeed.
Network, attend events, use online platforms & leverage personal connections to find the perfect mentor for you.
Build meaningful relationships based on trust and understanding for a successful mentorship journey.
Having access to the cumulative experience and expertise of many busines...
All startup hype aside, actually getting paid kinda matters.
The short line of highly visible, massive startup successes is vastly overwhelmed by the long, long, long line of Founders (and their staff) who racked up all kinds of debt with nothing to show for it. That's the part of the story no one likes to talk about — actually getting paid.
Building a startup is synonymous with deferred compensation and equity fortunes, but it masks a very real truth which is very few of those paper fortunes every become liquid. As Founders, while we benefit from amassing those paper fortunes, we need to be entirely focused on the real paper — getting paid with cash money.
It's so easy to get caught up in the value of "...
I have two modes — working all the time and feeling guilty about not working all the time. There's no third mode.
I'd love to say this is a new phenomenon or that I've got some monopoly on this curse, but having spoken to countless Founders just like me, it appears I'm certainly not alone.
Now, part of that might just be self-selection. Perhaps the people who tend to work tirelessly often want to do it for themselves, or at the very least, have more motivation than the people they left back in their cubicle farm. I can't think of anyone who works harder than a Founder without anyone telling them to do it!
Everyone's origin story comes from somewhere else, so I can't pretend to triangulate the genesis of this afflicti...
As a founder or leader in a startup, it's easy to get caught up in the day-to-day grind of running your business. But if you want to achieve real success, it's important to take a step back and consider the bigger picture.
In his essay "Growth," Paul Graham argues that the most successful startups tend to be those that focus on rapid growth.
But what does it mean to have a "growth mindset"? Simply put, it's the belief that your company can and should grow quickly, and the willingness to take on new challenges and opportunities as they arise.
This means being open to trying new things, even if they come with a risk of failure. It means embracing change and constantly seeking out ways to improve and expand your business.
Product differentiation is process used by companies to clarify the differences between their products and other products on the market. Those other products can include competitors but also a company’s own products, to prevent overlap between the offerings. The goal is to find a product’s unique selling point (USP).
Product differentiation is important because it makes your product stand out from the crowd! It’s easier and easier to create a company or sell a product or connect directly with factories in China these days. So what makes your housewares product or dating app or SaaS product different from all of the other housewares products, dating apps, and SaaS pr...
These are all valid questions, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. For some people, retirement makes perfect sense — especially if you don't enjoy your job or feel like it's not fulfilling your needs. But for others, early retirement isn't necessarily the best choice.
If you love what you do and it fulfills you, then why stop? Continuing to work can give you a sense of purpose and accomplishment. And if you're passionate about what you do, continuing to work can keep you engaged and active in life.