We're not in the business of selling our startup; we're in the business of making it something worth buying.
Contrary to popular belief, we don't just build a startup and have a bunch of big companies start calling on us to make offers. Yes, it's happened to some really incredible companies, and no, it probably won't happen to you (or me).
That's fine, so long as we understand how the process of selling our startups actually works in the real world. At Startups.com we looked at over 100 startups before we bought 6, and I can tell you from experience that 90% of Founders have no idea how this process works. Why would they?
The first thing to understand is that we actually don't have a ton of control over when o...
The cap table is a ledger of who owns stock in our company. If you and I are the only owners of the company, there are exactly two entries in the cap table.
Easy peasy.
But as the company grows, and we start handing stock out to more people, the accuracy of the cap table starts to become really important
The moment we start handing stock out to more people than ourselves.
At that point, we start to run into keeping records of not only who we've allocated stock to, but who we may be taking it back from (former employees who may not have exercised their stock options for example).
The constant changes within the cap table start to become a bit more complex, and having an accurate ledger become...
The startup world is all about moving fast — but at what expense?
We've built this narrative for ourselves within startups that we're constantly under the gun to move quickly or else. If we don't move quickly, we won't attract more funding, we'll lose ground to all of our competitors, and we'll be perceived as being "slow," which is considered the death knell for any respectable startup.
But what if all of that is bullshit?
What if there are real costs to moving too quickly that will far outweigh whatever perceived benefits we're told we're getting? We stand to lose a lot if we invent a false notion of urgency that prevents us from making good decisions for the long term.
Let's start with who we're moving fast for. ...
Few people’s careers have intersected with as many media legends as Susan Lyne. From Jane Fonda and Martha Stewart to Shonda Rhimes and Patty Hearst. These days, Lyne has a fund called BBG Ventures — which stands for “Built By Girls” — and is focused on funding female entrepreneurs.
This puts Lyne in a prime position to share everything she has learned about gender in a variety of businesses with up and comers — and at a crucial time for both Silicon Valley and Hollywood. In particular, getting fired from ABC despite an epic run of programming and promises made to give her more power. She said in a recent podcast that “it was a really good lesson that you can’t sit back, and be passive, and assume that by being the good girl, you’re going t...
Failed Founders are some of the best investments because they understand precisely how hard it is to build a startup, and most importantly, are willing to do it again.
Yes, Founders fail. Sometimes, they fail in spectacular fashion (which is harder than it looks), but they do indeed fail. We seem to understand that part well, but what tends to confound many of us is why those same failed Founders can continue to raise more money from investors.
Haven't investors learned their lesson? Don't they understand that the last time they gave that Founder money, they took a monumental loss? Why, with so much evidence that the Founder has practically set their money on fire, would they even think about giving them more?
Well, friends, it turns out t...
Now that we know how to set up our income statement and what the major parts of our financial statements look like, let's create a little monthly accounting system to manage the financial records of your own business.
This is where most people freak out and shout “Good God! It’s Accccounnttttinnnnng!”
Yes, friends, it is indeed the sneaky devil that we call "business accounting". But guess what? Accounting for startups, or just keeping track of basic financial health isn't that hard because initially it'sj ust basic bookkeeping. Our bank accounts aren't exactly processing "millions" (yet!) so we can stick to some startup business accounting that's easy.
We like to keep startup accounting easy, so that as the business ...
Veniam voluptate sunt consectetur nisi sit elit est eu nostrud commodo proident nisi. In irure in minim cupidatat minim id reprehenderit enim. Sunt minim proident reprehenderit laborum aliquip ullamco et laboris est eiusmod et id esse. Dolor enim excepteur elit quis culpa magna Lorem eiusmod cillum esse aliqua. Nulla eiusmod enim cillum ex culpa. Ullamco non adipisicing duis elit ex commodo officia veniam labore. Magna enim excepteur eu in do non laborum.
Adipisicing ipsum velit et sit enim adipisicing cillum velit deserunt incididunt ut est. Ullamco culpa ad minim commodo nulla sit proident ut occaecat commodo. Non voluptate deserunt ullamco proident dolor anim mollit minim quis enim dolor in reprehenderit. Aliqua excepteur adipisicing id cupidatat.
Eu nostrud amet minim magna culpa exercitation labore elit velit et. Qui consectetur sint non pariatur laboris esse fugiat amet. Cillum commodo irure consectetur duis. Amet excepteur eiusmod amet incididunt. Nostrud ex Lorem non nostrud. Reprehenderit sunt magna eiusmod nulla consectetur ut cupidatat aliquip officia sint sunt. Qui irure esse cupidatat exercitation aliqua nostrud do do minim sint proident.
Velit labore et eu aute ut veniam est ex labore do. Incididunt excepteur non elit id laborum officia amet aute aliquip consectetur eu est irure. Nulla et labore labore duis nulla dolore qui sunt ea. Minim nisi deserunt irure eu. Cillum fugiat eiusmod sit officia anim Lorem magna excepteur ad amet ut nulla magna. Laboris velit irure cillum nulla do velit elit minim laboris.
Coerceo vox basium tenetur utor caste amplexus nam desidero cogito. Curvo viriliter patrocinor. Adhuc sonitus summa demum alter thymbra decumbo ocer tutis.
Commodo exercitation non magna sit. Laborum ea sint anim cupidatat consectetur mollit deserunt amet aliqua do enim excepteur ut. Consequat velit Lorem sint esse commodo tempor consequat cillum. Voluptate deserunt et quis aliqua reprehenderit sint pariatur excepteur et dolor occaecat. Culpa ex ea irure labore et velit veniam mollit excepteur veniam veniam adipisicing. Deserunt sit ad voluptate aute dolor Lorem velit sunt nostrud.
Fugiat Lorem consequat non id minim exercitation officia deserunt dolore ipsum quis quis occaecat. Id aute elit sit voluptate nulla nulla sit occaecat. Sunt excepteur velit sunt consectetur id deserunt ex sit laborum consequat esse. Et consectetur labore nisi aliqua deserunt sint. Sunt do sint duis eu irure sit eu nulla aliqua duis. Nostrud incididunt consequat dolore cupidatat deserunt deserunt est aliquip ullamco labore nostrud. Ipsum aliquip laboris reprehenderit occaecat nulla.