Startup investors are incredibly useful experts — on investing in startups.
The problem for us Founders is when we start taking their expertise on building startups as gospel, and worse, start pivoting based on their feedback versus our own decisions.
This stems from the fact that as Founders, we don't really have a lot of data points or experience when it comes to the qualifications of investors. We tend to think that since they invest in startups, they must be experts in how startups operate.
One of my favorite indulgences is listening to an investor who has been thinking about my business for 60 seconds tell me what the future of my business will be. I will always politely listen (you never know what you...
I am hard pressed to think of a company run by just a handful of people— with less than 100 million users and no revenue at its peak — that has had such a transformational impact on the consumer Web than Instagram.
Had Instagram stayed independent, it may well have wound up looking a lot like Twitter, today.
Had Twitter bought Instagram, everything would look different: Facebook struggles more with teens and mobile just after it’s IPO, and Twitter doubles down on photos/expression/celebrity and pop culture.
But instead, Facebook bought Instagram and that one move made the strongest market player way stronger than the $1 billion it “overpaid” for the asset. Not only did Instagram give Facebook youth again, celebrity, it’s first successful “m...
Recessions breed incredible opportunities for startups, if only us Founders knew where to look and how to leverage them.
At its core, a recession distracts everyone all at once, meaning only a select few will have the fortitude and foresight to find advantages. What we need to do during these times is step back and look at the overall picture to understand not just what's happening to us, but what's also happening to everyone else.
This is where the opportunity begins.
It's really hard for anyone to stay focused on growth when the walls are closing in around us. That's why most of our competition will be circling the wagons and staying completely fixated on internal struggles and survival. This is a gol...
If we ever plan on growing our startup, we're going to have to start saying "Yes" to a whole bunch of stuff that terrifies us.
That's right. We're going to make bold commitments to customers, investors, and even our own staff regarding stuff we're not entirely sure we can pull off. I know, I know, it sounds scary.
Any rational Founder would be asking: "How can I tell an investor we're going to grow to $100 million if I can't possibly see how we'd get there today?" or "How can I tell a customer we can do the work if we don't have enough people available right now?"
It's called "figure it out," and it's been the growth strategy of every successful startup since the dawn of time. It takes some getting used to because it logically feels disinge...
Here's a crazy idea — what about a startup that just makes money?
I know, I know — crazy talk! But it turns out that while 1% of the startup world is busy chasing venture capital and trying to create outsized returns, 99% of the rest of businesses are just trying to build a business that consistently turns a profit.
"How dare you question the wisdom of VC!" — echoes the startup world.
But seriously, it turns out even grizzled veterans of the startup world, especially those who have raised venture capital before, are getting really excited about building companies that guarantee a profit versus potentially generating an exit.
It's a confluence of factors, really. When the Nuclear Winter of Funding hit in 2022 and beyond, an aw...
Founders are generally really bad at asking for help... but why?
We'd think in a business where we need help with literally everything, we'd be amazing at asking for help. Yet time and time again, we go it alone, or at most make a half-hearted attempt to get the guidance we probably need.
I spend most of my day pleading with Founders, "Please, whatever you do, stop guessing! Let me just tell you exactly what you need to do in order to move forward so you can spend your time getting it done versus figuring out how to do it."
Once we finally break that seal, I get countless questions, which is exactly my goal as someone who helps Founders all day. But the same issue keeps coming up "Why are Founders always hesitant to ask for help?"
The first $10k of recurring revenue in any startup isn't just "revenue" — it's the difference between living and dying as a startup.
For startups, the best shot we have at living to see a big outcome is not dying along the way. While startups are often focused on "scaling to millions," what they often forget is that long before then it's just about keeping the lights on.
Whenever I'm building a new startup, my first and only focus is, "How do we get to 'life support' revenue so we can survive long enough to figure the rest out?" Having been through this startup phase countless times, I look back and realize that the startups that had the most success were those that were able to weather the (many) downtimes along the way.
Everyone...
Why do Founders seem so reluctant to ask for help?
We'd think in a business that involves nothing but unanswered questions, our arms would be tired from raising our hands to ask for more help. But instead, we tend to constantly motor through problems that we have no idea how to solve, or have very little experience with, as if we're the best person to solve them.
The source of this tends to be a lack of understanding. In many cases we simply don't realize that the problems we are solving already have readily available solutions, and more so, super experienced people who are more than willing to hand them to us.
What if I were to tell you that nearly every problem that you're solving is only new to you as the Fo...
The way to get rid of Founder Impostor Syndrome is to just be a wildly successful Founder... right?
Actually no — and it surprisingly gets worse over time.
Founder Impostor Syndrome is what we feel when we think we're not truly qualified or capable of being a successful startup Founder. We second guess all of our decisions and outcomes because we have an endless stream of more successful Founders to compare ourselves to.
What we fail to realize is that no matter what we achieve, we never lose the feeling of being "less than qualified" we simply convert it to something else where we feel just as insecure.
Here's how it tends to happen.
Launching our startup is like showing up on the first day of High School as a do...
Venture capital, when provided by venture capitalists, serves a crucial role in stimulating economic growth and fostering innovation. Without it, the market landscape would be devoid of innovative startups with groundbreaking ideas. Fortunately, this form of funding gives life to these businesses, which in turn promotes progress for all. In this blog post, we discuss how venture capital works from its structure and ecosystem to potential risks as well as rewards that come along with it.
Venture capital is a form of private equity investment that provides capital to high-potential startups and small businesses.
It involves an extensive process of due diligence, term sheet negotiations, and post-investment support for portfolio com...