Funding
For many startups, the next 12 months will be challenging. Default Investable or Default Alive. Know which path you are on. A few weeks ago, Tom Loverro of the venture fund IVP tweeted that we are on the verge of a mass extinction event for startups. Carta shared data showing
Growth
Your startup journey will be filled with dead ends, false starts, and long treks down the wrong path. When it’s time to pivot, there are two traps to avoid. When you closed your last round of funding, you had a plan for what happened next. You had a strategy
Growth
The dog on the left is a Bavarian Mountain Scent Hound. As you can see, it’s a very serious-looking dog. Hounds are notoriously difficult to train to be off-leash. When a hound dog catches a scent, it puts its head down and starts running. They lose focus on everything
Growth
In the chaos and frenzy of building a startup, there are plenty of places where you need to slow down to ensure you’re building a solid foundation to grow future value. Your search for product-market fit is where you need to speed up. A long time ago, Eric Ries
Funding
2023 is going to be another challenging year for many founders. The pullback by investors will continue, leaving the potential path to additional funding uncertain. Yes, investors have plenty of dry powder. But they are being far more careful about deploying those funds than in 2020 and 2021. If you&
Growth
Innovation comes from experimentation. Experimentation leads to failure. Embracing failure is the path to building great products and enterprise value. This past weekend, I had a rare opportunity to kick back and relax. I needed a few supplies before I settled into my couch, so I grabbed my Amazon Fire
Funding
There are four common pitfalls entrepreneurs fall into while raising venture capital. Here are a few tips on how to avoid them. Founders that raise venture capital tend to focus on optimizing around four things: * Getting to the next round of funding as quickly as possible * Increasing valuation * Maintaining their
Growth
Startups, and downhill mountain biking, are inherently risky. But you can improve your odds of success by taking a thoughtful, methodical approach to progressing throughout your journey. I love downhill mountain biking. The sport involves taking full-suspension mountain bikes on ski lifts to ride them down the mountain as fast
Funding
Calculating how much runway you have isn't as simple as you may think. Get it wrong, and your company might be running on fumes sooner than you expected. Until your startup is profitable and generating positive cash flow, there is one fundamental question you should be able to
Growth
One important measure of marketing efficiency. So many variables to choose from. Your profitability and cash flow depend on making the right choices. It's a mystery. Your sales and marketing expense has been over budget for months, but you're missing your revenue projections. You're
Funding
Take a look at the picture below. That's me in July 2011. After I took this picture, I decided to create a little experiment. I set it as my profile photo and started asking people a question. What do you see? Where am I? What am I doing?
Growth
We're in a tricky time in the economy. Inflation is the highest it's been in decades. Your costs continue a relentless march upward. In response, governments are raising interest rates to slow down their economies and reduce demand. Businesses and consumers, feeling the pinch of inflation