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...
We need to treat every successful startup like it's our last — because statistically speaking, it probably will be.
In the startup biz, there are tons of second and third acts (I'm on my 9th) but there are very few that are ever equally successful. That's a problem for us as Founders, because we can easily lose sight of how important a single success is, and waste the opportunity thinking there will simply be another.
What if there isn't? What if this startup success, in whatever form it has right now, is the last successful startup we'll ever build? Shouldn't we treat it like gold versus assuming this is "one of many"? What happens if we get this wrong?
The first thing we need to understand is that the odds ...
Every Founder wishes they had more money, but we often don't realize what happens when we spend it.
There's this fascinating transition point that we go through as Founders where our problems start with income (because we always start with zero) and then quickly transition to debts (because someone always needs to be paid).
We put ourselves in this dangerous loop where instead of getting ahead on that next round of income, we actually dig ourselves deeper into a hole by adding exponentially more costs—and those costs aren't just financial.
We don't just grow income; we grow problems, and sometimes, way faster.
When I was building my first startup with just a couple of college kids on payroll, I was terrified that I woul...
As a startup, customer acquisition is essential for success. It requires careful planning and execution to ensure that your efforts are successful and cost-effective. In this introduction, we will explore key topics such as building relationships with potential customers, tracking success metrics, leveraging digital marketing channels, testing different campaigns, and more. With the right strategies in place, customer acquisition can be an exciting opportunity for startups to grow their customer base and expand their business.
Customer acquisition for startups is an incredibly important process that can mean the difference between success and failure. A...
I had the pleasure of talking to Blake about his ideas and experiences as a social entrepreneur. I started by asking him about how TOMS started.
Blake: I started TOMS after a trip I took to Argentina in 2006. I noticed that many of the locals wore shoes that I learned were alpargata. I also noticed that in rural villages there were many children who were without shoes and how that was affecting their daily lives. I had to come up with a way to help and knew that relying on donations alone was not a sustainable solution, so I used my knowledge of business to come up with an idea. The result was a for-profit business model that empowers customers to help children through their purchases. For every pair of shoes purchased, a new pair is given ...
Pandora was never the darling of Silicon Valley. Ever. It never had the hype of Spotify, the scale of a hot social app, or the vision of Netflix. And yet, what it has always had is a leadership team that would not quit and a passionate user base who wouldn’t quit on the product either.
You hear a lot about the great entrepreneurs not giving up… but you hear less about founders pitching 348 investors before they got a yes, less about founding teams who went years without pay, less about founders who personally racked up half a million in debt trying to stay afloat. It took three acts of Congress to save Pandora at one point… and that was when a grassroots campaign by its users bailed the company out. More people complained that Congress migh...
There's an incredible amount of magic in having very little time to get things done.
That's why at Startups.com, with over 200+ people, we manage our entire workload based on what we plan on getting done by Friday. That's it. No long term planning sessions, no confusing Gantt charts or Trello boards. Just 5 days to get stuff done.
And damn it's effective.
The problem with creating longer planning cycles is that every additional day, week, or month decreases the visibility and accountability for a single day of work. Our focus needs to be reducing the amount of time we can cheat on our time.
Imagine we wanted to lose 10 pounds this year. At lunch, we can order a cheeseburger, because hey, we have all year t...
Tap into the power of startup communities to help you take your ideas and business plans further. These incredible networks offer a wealth of resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities that can be invaluable when starting out on an entrepreneurial venture.
In this blog post, we will look at why these innovative startup ecosystems are so important in America, as well as explore options for international entrepreneurs who want to access these global community support structures too. Finally, early-stage investor input is discussed with tips shared on how best to navigate through the process successfully!
Startup communities provide powerful resources and connections to help entrepreneurs succeed.
Explore the vibrant startu...
There are a ton of jobs we can hire for — a "Founder" isn't one of them.
Nearly all of us, at some point, dream of replacing ourselves with someone else, ideally someone that's a big level up, so that we can take the pressure off of us and enjoy the good life. But over time most of us arrive at the same conclusion — back-filling the role of "Founder" is nearly impossible.
Why is it so hard? Clearly, there are more people out there substantially more qualified than we are to run our companies. Yet, time and time again, Founders try to recruit the "perfect replacement" only to find themselves right back in the leadership chair before they know it.
The answer lies in the fact that while we can hire capabilities beyond our own, there are a few ...
Several years ago, we joked that Lyft’s investors— a motley crew that includes Japanese conglomerates, billionaire hedge funds, other ride-sharing startups, sharp elbowed activists like Carl Icahn — and major venture capitalists like Andreessen Horowitz, Founders Fund and Floodgate — as the coalition of billionaires investing against Uber as much as they were investing in Lyft.
On October 19, another one joined the ranks: Alphabet — Google and Waymo’s parent company — lead a new $1 billion Lyft round. The same one embroiled in a multi-billion trade theft lawsuit with Uber. The same one that was once also an investor in Uber. This has never been an industry where allies stay allies forever. And Lyft’s co-founders John Zimmer and Logan Green ...