Paul G. Silva

NOVEMBER 8, 2023

Jeremy Lam kindly interviewed me for the Swif podcast. We discussed the work PixelEdge does to help business services firms increase their EBITDA and disrupt competitors.

disruption 130

disruption innovation 130

Paul G. Silva

OCTOBER 30, 2023

Source Harvard Business Review Putting Products into Services , by Mohanbir Sawhney Analysis High-end professional services firms, unlike product companies, traditionally experience only linear revenue growth. That’s because selling more services means adding more professionals, which limits profit margins. And this growth is complicated by the chronic talent shortage hitting every business services sector I’ve encountered.

enablement 130

enablement innovation leadership technology 130

Paul G. Silva

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Meetings ARE expensive Poorly run meetings drain people of their energy (sometimes of their very soul)! A bad meeting can easily sink the productivity of team members for an entire day, sometimes for a lot longer! That could be worth thousands of dollars in lost productivity. People participating in your meeting can’t be doing something else – like the things on their To Do list adding value to the company!

energy 264

energy development innovation 264

Paul G. Silva

AUGUST 9, 2023

Alexander Osterwalder and the team at Strategizer published a small eBook chock-full of best practices on corporate innovation called From Innovation Theater to Growth Engine. Ahead of the book they also released a set of videos explaining some of the concepts. Strategizer is likely one of the top innovation consultants out there. They don’t build the innovations, but they do teach you how to find, vet, and manage a portfolio of innovative ideas.

innovation 130

innovation sustainability consulting disruption 130

Paul G. Silva

AUGUST 10, 2023

Picture it. Your team gets the big meeting with the CEO of a company right smack in the middle of your target market. This company could be an amazing reference client. The CEO spends a lot of time with your team, telling you exactly what she needs. She gladly looks at multiple iterations of the product, giving concrete, actionable feedback at every stage.

development 130

development innovation 130

Paul G. Silva

AUGUST 8, 2023

A few years back Google published research on what made their teams thrive. By far the most important attribute was Psychological Safety. Psychological safety refers to an individual’s perception of the consequences of taking an interpersonal risk or a belief that a team is safe for risk taking in the face of being seen as ignorant, incompetent, negative, or disruptive.

disruption 188

disruption innovation 188

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 14, 2023

From 2003-2022 the River Valley Investors operated as a traditional angel group, investing in nearly 100 startups. For posterity, here are some of the more recent investments… 2022 Hubly Surgical Hubly Surgical has an advanced drill, complete with auto-stop and visual feedback, to make medical drilling safe across underserved settings. They’re first starting with the high-complication, hand-cranked, most common neurosurgery: bedside craniotomy.

investing 100

investing investment real estate startup 100

Paul G. Silva

MARCH 30, 2023

In February Sandy Wollman, Marty Isaac, and myself worked with the Angel Capital Association to evolve New England & New York’s syndication process to work for more angel groups. Angels from New England, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania came together to test out our new approach to syndicating deals. Representatives from other syndication groups from as far as the west coast attended as well.

angel capital 147

angel capital startup networking entrepreneurs 147

Paul G. Silva

DECEMBER 12, 2022

[This is part of a series on the KISS Canvas ]. Struggling to map your business model because you have lots of stakeholders / customer segments? The Keep It Super Simple (KISS) Canvas takes your complex, multi-sided business model and turns it into an easy-to-understand story. Each row answers a key question about a stakeholder. Each column represents a stakeholder: payers, users, channel partners, employees, etc.

startup accelerator 130

startup accelerator creativity pitching accelerator 130

Paul G. Silva

NOVEMBER 19, 2022

Hand holding light bulb and cog inside. Idea and imagination. Creative and inspiration. Innovation gears icon with network connection on metal texture background. Innovative technology in science and industrial concept. “We’ve been world-class at what we do for decades. But the world has changed and we need to adapt. How do we come up with ideas that are out-of-the-box and have high potential?

innovation 147

innovation leadership creativity disruption 147

Paul G. Silva

OCTOBER 6, 2022

A central tenet of the Lean Startup is “pivot, persevere, or perish.” On June 1st, after five years of perseverance and pivoting, my partners and I wound down Launch413. With six months now past, it feels right to share what we’ve learned. For those unfamiliar with it, Launch413 was a Post Accelerator that helped startup CEOs scale for sustained success by providing coaches with deep domain expertise.

board 147

board advice communities entrepreneurs 147

Paul G. Silva

SEPTEMBER 15, 2022

The angel groups of New England and New York joined forces to help startups get funded. Initial results: 2x as many startups are being seen by 2x as many investors, in 1/10th the time. Entrepreneur Pain Points. You would think that the marginal effort to raise money from a second angel group is much lower. Won’t the second group take all the hard work you did from the first group and only need to ask a few more questions?

peer-to-peer 147

peer-to-peer startup angel capital leadership 147

Paul G. Silva

SEPTEMBER 8, 2022

The great folks at Slidebean took the Lean Validation Board and gave it an update. Whereas the Business Model Canvas or the Lean Canvas map out your entire business model, this tool focuses only on the most critical things right now. It is a tool that helps you stay focused on the right priorities by putting them very clearly in your face.

board 147

board innovation 147

Paul G. Silva

SEPTEMBER 6, 2022

When data is scant, scientists can greatly disagree. This video does a wonderful job of explaining why, and how the situation changes as data comes in. For those of us in innovation & entrepreneurship – this is our life! We are always starting in places of low data and high uncertainty, yet need to move forward. Lots of lessons to borrow from scientists here.

innovation 147

innovation entrepreneurship 147

Paul G. Silva

AUGUST 18, 2022

If you work in a business services company (consulting, accounting, legal, etc.) and are in charge of evaluating ideas for innovation, most of the tools you’ve heard of don’t work. And so was born the KISS (Keep It Super Simple) Canvas for Business Services. All of the key information you need to do a basic assessment of an idea’s potential fits in one page.

innovation 182

innovation consulting opportunity accelerator 182

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 30, 2022

Private Equity firms that own professional services businesses have a challenge with growing valuations. In a services-based business it is hard to increase revenue without increasing headcount. Margins shrink as hiring, training, and retaining talent becomes progressively more difficult. Meanwhile, all of the company’s intellectual property is locked in the heads of employees, meaning that when the employees leave the building, so do the company’s assets.

accelerator 113

accelerator culture innovation disruption 113

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 28, 2022

About The Workshop. Startups don’t die from laziness. They die from working really hard… on the wrong things. You’ve launched your venture… now what? The financial lives of your team depends on you. When do you raise money? From who? On what terms? Is it time to hire or keep your burn low? Should you pivot to a new market or stay the course? The pressure to make the right decisions is intense.

startup 147

startup frameworks leadership accelerator 147

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 2, 2022

I am delighted to announce that I have joined forces with Ali Usman and the incredible team at PixelEdge. Ali and I have been friends for over a decade, mentoring countless entrepreneurs together. I’ve personally watched PixelEdge launch incredible products for startups and big companies alike. They launch on time, build right, and achieve product-market fit!

innovation 113

innovation consulting sustainability opportunity 113

Paul G. Silva

MAY 12, 2022

Leaders of global corporations are under intense pressure to grow their valuation by hitting aggressive revenue, margin, and EBITDA targets. Acquirers pay a valuation premium on recurring, high-margin, and high-growth product revenue. However, the metrics most companies use (ROI) fail to capture the impact on valuation, causing leaders to make choices that slow their valuation growth.

innovation 130

innovation consulting SaaS support 130

Paul G. Silva

MARCH 31, 2022

Baer Tierkel. The world lost Baer Tierkel last week at the age of 61. About 20 years ago I was a kid running my first startup and Baer was one of the early people to join our Board of Advisors. He came to every board meeting with deep insights and deeper belly laughs. I learned a great deal from that man that proved pivotal. The company eventually failed, but not before helping thousands of blind people around the world reconnect with friends and family in ways many had not thought possible.

board 279

board ventures startup accelerator 279

Paul G. Silva

JULY 23, 2021

I’ve been a fan for years, and now Launch413 and I have the honor of being on the Angel Invest Boston podcast. Listen to hear how Launch413 helps startup CEO’s beat the odds and attain sustained success. LinkedIn post w/ mini-video | main interview page.

angel investing 140

angel investing investing investment sustainability 140

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 3, 2021

[This is part of a series on the KISS Canvas ]. Why. 30-page business plans are great for established businesses and terrible for startups that need to iterate quickly. 15+ years ago the Business Model Canvas (BMC) changed everything by giving us a 1-pager (or 4×3 foot poster) to help you quickly document and test the key hypothesis behind your business model.

creativity 147

creativity sustainability pitching ventures 147

Paul G. Silva

MAY 18, 2021

Caya and his team at Slidebean kindly interviewed me about often-invisible deal-killer for startup raising money: the investment-culture differences between varying groups of investors. Did you know if you are using a SAFE note that 2/3rds of angels in New England angel groups will categorically decline you? Learn more about this and about how to suss out the cultural norms of your investment community.

culture 232

culture communities investing investment 232

Paul G. Silva

MAY 10, 2021

This is a repost from the Launch413 blog. Effective Tools Used By Launch413: A Case Study. When we created Launch413 in 2018, we had no idea what was just around the corner. We already knew entrepreneurs were one of the best ways to create prosperity in our communities and we knew how to help them. We also knew entrepreneurs were one of the most powerful forces for good in the world.

sustainability 113

sustainability startup frameworks accelerator 113

Paul G. Silva

FEBRUARY 9, 2021

This long, detailed, and excellent article is chock full of valuable advice on pricing. One part that particularly stood out for sharing are the four questions to ask a potential customer to help you determine where to price your product. At what point is this way too expensive that you would never consider purchasing it? At what point is this starting to get expensive, but you’d still consider purchasing it?

advice 113

advice accelerator innovation 113

Paul G. Silva

JANUARY 25, 2021

One year ago the angel group I have the honor to lead pivoted to a substantially different model. Like all pivots, it wasn’t easy. In fact, it was scary as hell. But thanks to the incredible involvement of our members and our assistant manager Ethan Ferris, 2020 was our best year ever. Membership tripled , pulling in people from a much larger geography than conceivable before.

investing 113

investing investment pitching collaboration 113

Paul G. Silva

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

For 14 years I’ve led the River Valley Investors angel investor network. A year ago the group was on death’s door. Membership was down to the lowest levels since I’d taken over leadership from our founder and my mentor, Joseph Steig. And none of us knew that COVID was just around the corner. If RVI failed then our region would have lots its only active angel group – a huge potential blow to local startups.

investing 113

investing investment leadership networking 113

Paul G. Silva

AUGUST 13, 2020

One of my favorite jokes goes something like this: Whenever a new position opens up, and I have to sort through a stack of resumes, the first thing I do is take half of them at random and throw them away. I don’t want unlucky people working in this department. As with many good jokes, it’s funny because it has a nugget of truth to it. Anyone who’s run an accelerator, a grant program, reviewed book/screenplay manuscripts, or been in charge of hiring has an impossible challenge:

peer-to-peer 113

peer-to-peer pitching accelerator culture 113

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 30, 2020

Your company’s value proposition must provide benefits that perfectly match your customers’ pains. First-time entrepreneurs asked to document their hypotheses about Pains and Benefits often experience “blank canvas” paralysis , the inability to get started because of a lack of a clear starting point. This blog post aims to provide a set of categories and examples to guide an entrepreneur to find the relevant pain hypotheses.

communities 113

communities networking entrepreneurs accelerator 113

Paul G. Silva

JUNE 1, 2020

Marty Zwilling recently published a blog post with the most concise distillation of the possible exit strategies a for-profit startup can take and why an entrepreneur should be thinking about them from very early on. Hat tip to Paul Nicolai for sending me the article!

strategy 113

strategy entrepreneurs startup accelerator 113

Paul G. Silva

MAY 29, 2020

Why. Entrepreneurs and investors used to rely on strictly qualitative/gut methods of assessing progress and deciding what their next steps should be. In 2014 the great Steve Blank gave the startup world its first widely-respected quantitative assessment system: the Investment Readiness Level (IRL). A few years later Village Capital took the IRL to the next level, creating the Venture Investment and ReAdiness Level (VIRAL).

founder 182

founder board venture capital strategy 182

Paul G. Silva

MAY 24, 2020

[This is part of a series on the KISS Canvas ]. Why. 30-page business plans are great for established businesses and terrible for startups that need to iterate quickly. 15 years ago the Business Model Canvas (BMC) changed everything by giving us a 1-pager (or 4×3 foot poster) to help you quickly document and test the key hypothesis behind your business model.

creativity 147

creativity sustainability pitching startup 147

Paul G. Silva

MAY 7, 2020

The entrepreneurship faculty of Western New England University kindly inducted me as an honorary member of Sigma Nu Tau , the only academic honor society dedicated to entrepreneurship. My sincere thanks to WNE, and especially Mary Schoonmaker.

entrepreneurship 147

entrepreneurship accelerator innovation 147

Paul G. Silva

APRIL 9, 2020

This post contains our up-to-date set of best practices on how the River Valley Investors angel group runs our meetings online. Last updated on: 4/9/2020. Technology of choice: Zoom. Prep. Before the event, we ask everyone to log in with a device with a camera so we can see each other. They all have been invited to a google calendar event with the link embedded in it.

networking 113

networking entrepreneurs advice opportunity 113

Paul G. Silva

APRIL 7, 2020

If your startup/organization/team struggles with ideation (the process of coming up with ideas), you fall into one of two camps: Those who struggle to come up with any ideas. Those who come up with plenty of ideas but struggle to identify which ones are worth pursuing. What follows is a step-by-step guide for solving both problems. The Short Version.

peer-to-peer 213

peer-to-peer consulting education board 213

Paul G. Silva

APRIL 1, 2020

I am told that the angel groups of the Northeast have one of the best systems for syndicating deals in the country. There are many parts to making that happen. I have the privilege of running the nomination, application, and selection processes. The process is efficient and fair and might be helpful to other angel groups, or to other groups who see a lot of applications from people seeking money (accelerators, foundations, government agencies, etc).

angel capital 162

angel capital entrepreneurs accelerator startup 162

Paul G. Silva

MARCH 27, 2020

This is the checklist / boil down of the techniques listed in the pior 3 posts in the “Startup Pitching” series. After you complete a draft of your pitch, go over this list to make sure you’ve applied as many of the techniques as possible. Beginner (101). One rehearsed presenter – Pick one person to deliver your presentation, don’t tag team your pitches.

pitching 124

pitching startup culture investing 124