Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Today I want to address all of those running a company or making management decisions with a simple message: avoid generic business advice! By generic advice I mean anything of the form “do x,” such as “cut 20% of cost now.” So what then is an alternative to generic advice? These can form the basis for figuring out what to do and also for evaluating advice. A first principles based approach is always superior to the indiscriminate application of generic advice. MORE
The post What We Wish We Knew Then: 7 EO Members Share Advice for Graduates appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. It’s graduation season for many, which makes this a perfect time to experience-share with the next generation of entrepreneurs entering the workforce—and maybe even joining your company. We asked EO members what lessons they wished they had known when they graduated and joined the working world. Here’s what they shared. MORE
As a follow-up to our message on Angel Investing in Challenging Times, Christopher and I tasked Raza with putting together an update and perspective piece for the CEOs of our portfolio companies. The letter outlines our thoughts on some of the challenges they will face in the near term. In addition, Raza talks about steps each CEO should take right away to bolster their company. And finally, he touches on some of the resources they should reach out to within our local and national communities MORE
Michael answered questions from network members requesting advice for their entrepreneurial endeavors. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs and professionals looking to finance their business? What advice do you have for businesses operating in unstable environments? What advice do you have for entrepreneurs looking to expand—how can they use marketing strategies, social media, and product development to grow their businesses? MORE
They have advice to share. Ask them for advice. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. MORE
the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll get 8. How to go for the close Some Advice Before You Hit the Fund Raising Trail was originally published in Both Sides of the Table on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Fund raising. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising. MORE
I usually tell people that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned by F’ing up at my first company. Continue reading on Medium MORE
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ENTREPRENEURS WHO WANT TO LAUNCH A PODCAST? ANY SPECIFIC ADVICE TO FIRST-TIME PODCASTERS? . The post How to Launch a Podcast: Advice for Entrepreneurs appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. In the second article in our series about podcasts , we talk more with two EO members who launched online audio shows in 2019. In part one, we covered three questions to answer before you launch. . MORE
Real Estate Advice . Divya has some great advice for those who are looking to get into real estate either as a side business or move into it as a full career. Her first piece of advice is not to buy a fixer-upper right away. Check Out This Expert Advice on the Do’s and Don'ts. Check Out This Expert Advice on the Do’s and Don'ts appeared first on SmartHustle.com. MORE
SmartHustle Podcast with Ramon Ray · Business Growth Advice for Scaling Your Business. The post Business Growth Advice for Your Business appeared first on SmartHustle.com. Money Sales Tips business advice business growth Smart Hustle Interviews startup MORE
the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. This is part of a series on fund-raising advice for entrepreneurs and VCs. Why you should never have a data room?—?the MORE
It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. All advice you receive is too generic to help you – you need to decide for yourself in your exact situation. I call this process “triangulation” and my advice is always, “ Seek advice but in the end trust your own judgment.” MORE
Ginger's advice to women business owner? The post Reducing Startup Failure - Mastercard Exec Shares Her Insights and Advice for Female Founders. Startup failure is a serious thing. About one-third of small businesses fail during their first year in business, according to the SBA. Ginger Siegel is the head of small business at Mastercard and she shared her insights on what it takes to succeed as a small business owner and reduce the failure rate. MORE
As lines of code continue to proliferate through the world, as the rate of startup formation increases to seize those opportunities, and as the VC industry expands to support those new teams and opportunities, there is no shortage of people to visit for advice — not to mention all the resources online. In my short time investing to date, I have experienced a phenomenon that, in my own opinion, hurts more than helps — getting advice from too many sources. MORE
I can't think of a single time when a white man came to pitch me and I told him his fundraising plans weren't aggressive enough. Yet this is a message I'm giving to women and people of color all the time. It's not that this latter group isn't aggressive enough--after all, they're ditching everything else they could to to start companies. Something else is at play. MORE
Ever get bad advice? Ever take that advice without question because the person giving it was an investor, a superior in rank, the chairperson of your board? I’ll bet you have at least one story of bad advice taken and being bitten as a result. Email readers, continue here…] The angel investors could not raise the next, larger round to finance the shortfall and further expansion, putting the fragile young company at risk for following the advice of its board. MORE
With the launch of YC’s list of startups hiring for fall 2020 interns , I’ve been getting a lot of requests for advice from students about their upcoming fall plans. MORE
The best business advice I was given was in my year 10 woodwork class by my teacher—who was teaching woodwork to boys who were both frivolous and quick to make decisions on cutting into beautiful pieces of timber. The best advice I have ever received came from one of my mentors from the US. MORE
Lousy advice comes in many, often subtle, forms Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». advice entrepreneurship business-development business-strategy entrepreneur MORE
So here’s advice I give people all the time when they’re raising money. Or they’ll remind me of my common advice to take “ 50 coffee meetings.” The post The Most Important Advice I Could Give You About Unicorns appeared first on Bothsides of the Table. *. Unicorns. The most overused word in the technology industry today. And they aren’t even f **g real. That is how absurd thing have gotten. No, I take that back. MORE
The startup ecosystem is a terrific manufacturer of bad fundraising advice. We shouldn’t be taking the advice of the people that are on this kind of track and weaving it into our own fundraising strategy. Fundraising takes a long time. I’m a female founder. MORE
Kent Gregoire is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member and founder of Symphony Advantage, which helps CEOs achieve ongoing success through strategic thinking, advice and planning. Contributed to EO by Kent Gregoire. MORE
I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". I usually direct people to this post --still hanging atop the search rankings for " How to be a VC analyst" years later. MORE
Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. There are some smart if not somewhat cerebral bloggers I read who say that you shouldn’t take any startup advice at all because it’s too generalized to be useful to your situation. This is generally how I try to organize my own views and how I try to give advice. MORE
“I never, once in my life, had a plan B” Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». entrepreneurship productivity motivation business self-improvement MORE
There are five attributes of a great investor (see my book, “Extending the Runway,”) the money they offer at reasonable terms, their ability to guide you with advice about the context of your business plan in relation to the marketplace, their experience in the process of growing a company, their knowledge of how to best use corporate resource time, and finally, access to their extended relationships with others who can help speed growth. MORE
There are too many people giving advice who have been through one or two startups, none of which grew into a huge company, got to profitability, or an IPO. I think we all need to be a lot more discerning about where advice is coming from. That doesn''t feel like the perspective you get from a lot of advice givers these days. Your advice matches the experience of your accomplishments. Yet, it all sounds like awesome advice to other startup people--i.e. MORE
You can still take advantage of all the small business advice that was shared throughout the event. You can still listen to the whole thing, but we wanted to share some of our favorite moments and pieces of small business advice. Awesome small business advice! MORE
Rustand says he’s had calls from more than 300 business leaders at small and medium-sized companies looking for advice. The post Advice from Warren Rustand: Put Your Head Down and Walk Into the Storm appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Written for EO by Kalika Yap , an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Los Angeles. MORE
Contributed by Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Venture s, The Heritage Group. On my drive to work today I was listening to my favorite podcast, 20minVC. Sidenote –When I leapt into the venture world 15 months ago, the 20minVC and TheFullRatchet were my crash course in “how to be a VC”–true story]. Anyway, one question Harry Stebbings asked his guest: “what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were 25” really struck me. MORE
There is a second set of career discussions I have even more frequently than my “angel yourself” advice but this type is almost never discussed publicly in blogs, which tend to emphasize only billion-dollar opportunities, 20-something technical founders and Silicon Valley elitism. But I also have advice for the 15% that really do want to be a startup CEO. A shortened, better edited and with nicer pictures version of this post first appeared on TechCrunch. MORE
This advice applies just as much to us at CO.STARTERS. The post What Most Marketing Advice Doesn’t Tell You appeared first on CO.STARTERS®. MORE
I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. Often times, the advice is terrible or impractical. They don't look cautiously at the advice given to them by their favorite VC blogger. I'll show up generally anywhere I get invited to speak. I love public speaking, teaching and generally being helpful. MORE
For the most part my advice is simple, “don’t bother.” Entrepreneur AdviceI live in LA. And I’m a VC. So you can imagine I see my fair share of celebrities looking to get into the technology industry. And equal numbers of startups seeking celebrity endorsements in exchange for equity. ” But as ever I’ve had to have this debate in numerous company pitches and board meetings. So I guess it requires some explanation. MORE
Step into the sharp edges, do something that scares you Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». life-lessons entrepreneurship inspiration leadership self-improvement MORE
And what I did to fix them Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». startup productivity entrepreneurship business life-lessons MORE
The post Nick Dancer’s Advice to Biz Owners: “Just Show Up” appeared first on SmartHustle.com. Nicholas Dancer is the owner and operator of Dancer Concrete Design and he chats with Ramon Ray about concrete, entrepreneurship, leadership, and his new book, Day In, Day Out: The Secret Power in Showing Up and Doing the Work. The Beginning of a Business. Nick runs Dancer Concrete Design out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. MORE
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». startup business entrepreneurship work personal-development MORE
advice Related Topics 
Entrepreneurs' Organization
AUGUST 27, 2020
The best business advice I was given was in my year 10 woodwork class by my teacher—who was teaching woodwork to boys who were both frivolous and quick to make decisions on cutting into beautiful pieces of timber. The best advice I have ever received came from one of my mentors from the US.
CO.STARTERS
NOVEMBER 5, 2020
This advice applies just as much to us at CO.STARTERS. The post What Most Marketing Advice Doesn’t Tell You appeared first on CO.STARTERS®.
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This is going to be BIG.
FEBRUARY 21, 2021
The startup ecosystem is a terrific manufacturer of bad fundraising advice. We shouldn’t be taking the advice of the people that are on this kind of track and weaving it into our own fundraising strategy. Fundraising takes a long time. I’m a female founder.
Entrepreneurs' Organization
JANUARY 25, 2021
Kent Gregoire is an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member and founder of Symphony Advantage, which helps CEOs achieve ongoing success through strategic thinking, advice and planning. Contributed to EO by Kent Gregoire.
Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative
DECEMBER 4, 2019
Michael answered questions from network members requesting advice for their entrepreneurial endeavors. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs and professionals looking to finance their business? What advice do you have for businesses operating in unstable environments? What advice do you have for entrepreneurs looking to expand—how can they use marketing strategies, social media, and product development to grow their businesses?
Entrepreneur's Handbook
JANUARY 27, 2021
Lousy advice comes in many, often subtle, forms Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». advice entrepreneurship business-development business-strategy entrepreneur
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Entrepreneurs' Organization
MAY 6, 2020
Rustand says he’s had calls from more than 300 business leaders at small and medium-sized companies looking for advice. The post Advice from Warren Rustand: Put Your Head Down and Walk Into the Storm appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. Written for EO by Kalika Yap , an Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) member in Los Angeles.
TechStars
MARCH 4, 2020
Contributed by Ginger Rothrock, Senior Director at HG Venture s, The Heritage Group. On my drive to work today I was listening to my favorite podcast, 20minVC. Sidenote –When I leapt into the venture world 15 months ago, the 20minVC and TheFullRatchet were my crash course in “how to be a VC”–true story]. Anyway, one question Harry Stebbings asked his guest: “what do you know now that you wish you knew when you were 25” really struck me.
The Seraf Compass
APRIL 1, 2020
As a follow-up to our message on Angel Investing in Challenging Times, Christopher and I tasked Raza with putting together an update and perspective piece for the CEOs of our portfolio companies. The letter outlines our thoughts on some of the challenges they will face in the near term. In addition, Raza talks about steps each CEO should take right away to bolster their company. And finally, he touches on some of the resources they should reach out to within our local and national communities
This is going to be BIG.
APRIL 23, 2012
I'm often the last one to leave an event, held back by the most persistant of entrepreneurs trying to squeeze as much advice as they can out of me. Often times, the advice is terrible or impractical. They don't look cautiously at the advice given to them by their favorite VC blogger. I'll show up generally anywhere I get invited to speak. I love public speaking, teaching and generally being helpful.
Y Combinator
AUGUST 11, 2020
With the launch of YC’s list of startups hiring for fall 2020 interns , I’ve been getting a lot of requests for advice from students about their upcoming fall plans.
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Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 23, 2015
There is a second set of career discussions I have even more frequently than my “angel yourself” advice but this type is almost never discussed publicly in blogs, which tend to emphasize only billion-dollar opportunities, 20-something technical founders and Silicon Valley elitism. But I also have advice for the 15% that really do want to be a startup CEO. A shortened, better edited and with nicer pictures version of this post first appeared on TechCrunch.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 30, 2014
Everybody has a blog these days and there is much advice to be had. Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. There are some smart if not somewhat cerebral bloggers I read who say that you shouldn’t take any startup advice at all because it’s too generalized to be useful to your situation. This is generally how I try to organize my own views and how I try to give advice.
This is going to be BIG.
NOVEMBER 1, 2016
I can't think of a single time when a white man came to pitch me and I told him his fundraising plans weren't aggressive enough. Yet this is a message I'm giving to women and people of color all the time. It's not that this latter group isn't aggressive enough--after all, they're ditching everything else they could to to start companies. Something else is at play.
Both Sides of the Table
AUGUST 14, 2009
They have advice to share. Ask them for advice. Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC.
Haystack
SEPTEMBER 16, 2018
As lines of code continue to proliferate through the world, as the rate of startup formation increases to seize those opportunities, and as the VC industry expands to support those new teams and opportunities, there is no shortage of people to visit for advice — not to mention all the resources online. In my short time investing to date, I have experienced a phenomenon that, in my own opinion, hurts more than helps — getting advice from too many sources.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 6, 2018
the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll get 8. How to go for the close Some Advice Before You Hit the Fund Raising Trail was originally published in Both Sides of the Table on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story. Fund raising. It definitely has a “d” in it, as in it’s really not fun, raising.
Berkonomics
MARCH 29, 2018
Ever get bad advice? Ever take that advice without question because the person giving it was an investor, a superior in rank, the chairperson of your board? I’ll bet you have at least one story of bad advice taken and being bitten as a result. Email readers, continue here…] The angel investors could not raise the next, larger round to finance the shortfall and further expansion, putting the fragile young company at risk for following the advice of its board.
Continuations
MARCH 20, 2020
Today I want to address all of those running a company or making management decisions with a simple message: avoid generic business advice! By generic advice I mean anything of the form “do x,” such as “cut 20% of cost now.” So what then is an alternative to generic advice? These can form the basis for figuring out what to do and also for evaluating advice. A first principles based approach is always superior to the indiscriminate application of generic advice.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 14, 2015
So here’s advice I give people all the time when they’re raising money. Or they’ll remind me of my common advice to take “ 50 coffee meetings.” The post The Most Important Advice I Could Give You About Unicorns appeared first on Bothsides of the Table. *. Unicorns. The most overused word in the technology industry today. And they aren’t even f **g real. That is how absurd thing have gotten. No, I take that back.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 3, 2015
It spoke to me because it so resonates with my nearly daily advice to entrepreneurs and VCs alike. I went as far as to call it the best Tweet of 2015 so far because it encapsulated my advice so succinctly. All advice you receive is too generic to help you – you need to decide for yourself in your exact situation. I call this process “triangulation” and my advice is always, “ Seek advice but in the end trust your own judgment.”
Entrepreneurs' Organization
MAY 24, 2019
The post What We Wish We Knew Then: 7 EO Members Share Advice for Graduates appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. It’s graduation season for many, which makes this a perfect time to experience-share with the next generation of entrepreneurs entering the workforce—and maybe even joining your company. We asked EO members what lessons they wished they had known when they graduated and joined the working world. Here’s what they shared.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 23, 2012
For the most part my advice is simple, “don’t bother.” Entrepreneur AdviceI live in LA. And I’m a VC. So you can imagine I see my fair share of celebrities looking to get into the technology industry. And equal numbers of startups seeking celebrity endorsements in exchange for equity. ” But as ever I’ve had to have this debate in numerous company pitches and board meetings. So I guess it requires some explanation.
Both Sides of the Table
MAY 19, 2018
the most counter-intuitive fund-raising advice you’ll ever get I’m about to offer you some fund-raising advice that flies directly in the face of what most conventional wisdom will tell you. This is part of a series on fund-raising advice for entrepreneurs and VCs. Why you should never have a data room?—?the
Berkonomics
OCTOBER 15, 2015
There are five attributes of a great investor (see my book, “Extending the Runway,”) the money they offer at reasonable terms, their ability to guide you with advice about the context of your business plan in relation to the marketplace, their experience in the process of growing a company, their knowledge of how to best use corporate resource time, and finally, access to their extended relationships with others who can help speed growth.
Both Sides of the Table
APRIL 21, 2016
I usually tell people that everything I learned about being an entrepreneur I learned by F’ing up at my first company. Continue reading on Medium
This is going to be BIG.
JANUARY 6, 2014
There are too many people giving advice who have been through one or two startups, none of which grew into a huge company, got to profitability, or an IPO. I think we all need to be a lot more discerning about where advice is coming from. That doesn''t feel like the perspective you get from a lot of advice givers these days. Your advice matches the experience of your accomplishments. Yet, it all sounds like awesome advice to other startup people--i.e.
Entrepreneur's Handbook
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
And what I did to fix them Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». startup productivity entrepreneurship business life-lessons
This is going to be BIG.
JULY 8, 2013
I probably get around a dozen e-mails a week asking me how to get into venture capital. On top of that, anytime I talk to anyone who wants to get involved in startups but isn''t sure what they want to do, inevitably, I hear, "And then I was thinking maybe I should look into venture capital, too.". I usually direct people to this post --still hanging atop the search rankings for " How to be a VC analyst" years later.
Smart Hustle Magazine
JANUARY 31, 2020
The post Nick Dancer’s Advice to Biz Owners: “Just Show Up” appeared first on SmartHustle.com. Nicholas Dancer is the owner and operator of Dancer Concrete Design and he chats with Ramon Ray about concrete, entrepreneurship, leadership, and his new book, Day In, Day Out: The Secret Power in Showing Up and Doing the Work. The Beginning of a Business. Nick runs Dancer Concrete Design out of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Smart Hustle Magazine
JULY 8, 2020
Real Estate Advice . Divya has some great advice for those who are looking to get into real estate either as a side business or move into it as a full career. Her first piece of advice is not to buy a fixer-upper right away. Check Out This Expert Advice on the Do’s and Don'ts. Check Out This Expert Advice on the Do’s and Don'ts appeared first on SmartHustle.com.
Smart Hustle Magazine
SEPTEMBER 9, 2020
SmartHustle Podcast with Ramon Ray · Business Growth Advice for Scaling Your Business. The post Business Growth Advice for Your Business appeared first on SmartHustle.com. Money Sales Tips business advice business growth Smart Hustle Interviews startup
Entrepreneurs' Organization
JANUARY 2, 2020
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE TO ENTREPRENEURS WHO WANT TO LAUNCH A PODCAST? ANY SPECIFIC ADVICE TO FIRST-TIME PODCASTERS? . The post How to Launch a Podcast: Advice for Entrepreneurs appeared first on Octane Blog – The official blog of the Entrepreneurs' Organization. In the second article in our series about podcasts , we talk more with two EO members who launched online audio shows in 2019. In part one, we covered three questions to answer before you launch. .
Entrepreneur's Handbook
NOVEMBER 6, 2020
Step into the sharp edges, do something that scares you Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». life-lessons entrepreneurship inspiration leadership self-improvement
Entrepreneur's Handbook
NOVEMBER 9, 2020
Once you see it, you can’t unsee it Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». startup business entrepreneurship work personal-development
Smart Hustle Magazine
MAY 31, 2019
Ginger's advice to women business owner? The post Reducing Startup Failure - Mastercard Exec Shares Her Insights and Advice for Female Founders. Startup failure is a serious thing. About one-third of small businesses fail during their first year in business, according to the SBA. Ginger Siegel is the head of small business at Mastercard and she shared her insights on what it takes to succeed as a small business owner and reduce the failure rate.
Entrepreneur's Handbook
FEBRUARY 18, 2021
“I never, once in my life, had a plan B” Continue reading on Entrepreneur's Handbook ». entrepreneurship productivity motivation business self-improvement
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