"I want to put $50 million in the bank by the time I'm so I can retire early and never have to work again!"
Ah, the common refrain and justification of every startup dreamer, from the Founder across to the earliest employee. If only we could put that magic pot of gold into our coffers, then we could do what we really want to do.
Except it begs the questions:
Time and time again when I query Founders, beyond the surface level stuff, about how hard they have thought through this lifetime goal that they are sacrificing everything for...
In June 2013, I met the CEO of a data analytics startup here in the Bay Area. They had raised many millions already and I was on a mission to pitch them our services. However, as I stepped into their foyer, I was already filled with questions.
This was a handsome office for a company that had just raised a Series A round. Rather outsized, like a gangly teenager wearing his father’s jacket. Looked nice, but why does a small startup need a 5X office in one of the priciest real estate areas?
His answer caught me off guard. “I don’t ever want to feel cramped again!” he said, squishing his shoulders together.
Not far from this office, not so long ago, Steve Jobs had made a speech about “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish”, and here was a company that go...
What if no matter what we do, our anxiety never goes away?
We all want to believe that the relief from whatever is stressing us out is just one milestone away. If we could just raise this next round, or get the product shipped, or get to profitability — we'd be able to breathe easy.
It doesn't stop there. We believe if we just make enough money, meet the right person, or finally buy that one thing then we'll be "satisfied" and all that anxiety will melt.
But what if it never does? What if all of our achievements keep bringing us right back to the same point — and we can never figure out why? Can we really "out achieve" our anxiety?
Let me tell you Founder friends — I tried it. I started this game with a boatload...
Most small business owners and entrepreneurs have considered the question of whether or not to hire additional help. Whether you are just starting out, looking to expand, or simply need to become more organized and efficient, the need to delegate common administrative tasks is a typical problem.
Knowing you need help is the easy part, but making the decision of how to get that help is a little more daunting. Is it better to hire in-house or do you need a Virtual Assistant? Is a VA cost effective? What are the real benefits to the business and the user if you hire a Virtual Assistant?
We’ve honed in 5 important reasons you should hire a Virtual Assistant and the positive impact it will have on your business and your work-life balance.
The sneaky secret of being a Founder is that very few people want to see us succeed.
That's kind of messed up, right? We'd think that building something new in the world, creating jobs, and pursuing our own success would be something everyone could get behind, with only "fans in the stands," as it were.
That does sound awesome, but the reality is way different. We try not to think about it and mostly don't talk about it, but the people in the stands, even when they are cheering us on, are also hoping we lose. It's an important dynamic to understand for Founders who are becoming successful for the first time, and how success can sometimes make people's view of us worsen.
I could get into some deep psychology here,...
One of the things that makes running a startup so tough is that you have to attract some of the best and brightest employees, and get a heroic amount of productivity out of them, all while bigger, better-funded companies are offering them more money and better benefits.
In this environment, it’s tempting to spend a lot of money on perks — like yoga classes, fitness bootcamps, and gym memberships — to entice employees to not only work for you, but work longer hours. A corporate wellness program for a ten-person startup can easily end up costing two or three thousand dollars a month. At that point you’d be better off just hiring another employee.
However, it is possible to provide fitness & wellness service to your employees at an affordable...
What if you found out today you'd live twice as long — what would you do differently?
For many of us, especially young startup Founders, our issue isn't whether we're going to live longer but instead recognizing how young we really are, and by virtue of that, how much time we truly have in front of us.
Without a good measure of how much time we have in front of us, we simply make really amateur mistakes. We rush things, we create endless anxiety, and we create a false narrative that the world will implode if we somehow get to "30" without being a huge success.
The reality is our misperception of time is a huge impediment to our career. It's not until we properly calibrate our path that we can start building the future we want at a pace that...
It’s all about finding “the one”. We have hired hundreds of people in the last 7 years and I will attest that ironically, the HR positions were by far the most challenging to hire for.
My “golden” question when interviewing for HR: “How have you handled a situation in the past where an employee asks to “speak with you in confidence” about a problem they are having with their manager?”
“I tell them absolutely, come on in”. Wrong.
“I take notes and launch an investigation”. Wrong.
“I ask them to tell me more details and I will handle the situation for them”. Wrong.
“I remind the employee that I am there to listen to them and advocate for them”. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong!
Correct Answer: “I redirect them back to their manager and then to help coach...
It’s a war of attrition, it really is. Most entrepreneurs in most industries just give up. So the question is — how long can you last? How long can you survive?
When I ask Derek Andersen about the biggest challenges of building his company, Startup Grind from the ground up, his response is refreshingly blunt: “All of it.”
“We didn’t have any money, so we couldn’t really hire anyone. We worked out of my garage for a year, just to just try to save money and run really really lean. We had no documents or templates or process for onboarding or anything.”
And on top of all those logistical challenges, there was this tiny one: “We didn’t have a brand, so nobody knew who we were or why we should exist.”
Funnily enough, the challenges that Startup ...
If you’re involved in the startup world, you’ve probably heard the term “lean startup” thrown around. No, it’s not a new weight loss plan — although I wouldn’t doubt that there are health and fitness apps out there who have used lean startup methodology.
It’s a system for creating a business that was first introduced by entrepreneur Eric Ries in 2008 and then outlined in his 2011 book The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Business.
In our article 19 Startup Books Every Founder Should Read, Lauren Foundos, Founder & CEO, FORTË said the following:
“The Lean Startup is an incredible book because it recounts the experience of Eric Ries. He highlights his mistakes in an effort to he...