Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 4, 2013

I guess this is the ultimate definition of implementing a business model when you’re not clear on strategy! One of the things I have observed over the years is that a hard charging sales oriented founder/CEO can often hide the defects in a product. Startup Advice' My take on his argument is this: 1. The money quote.

strategy 401

strategy startup peer-to-peer advice 401

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 1, 2015

I suppose it can be different for every founder and for different VCs but I’d like to offer you some context on what I think it is and it isn’t. I see this on a regular basis like the founders – Josh Mangel & Aaron Peck – at Skurt who are asking the obvious question of why renting a car an airport sucks so badly.

VC 353

VC advice consulting frameworks 353

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

You may feel as I did in 1999 that the more smart people around the table the more intros you’ll have, the more sage advice you’ll receive and the more impressive you’ll seem to outsiders. By definition you can’t have 3 investors each wanting to increase from 5% to 20% ownership or you’re fawked anyways.

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VC advice pitching investment 314

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 17, 2010

You don’t have the founders of eBay, LinkedIn, Salesforce.com and Yahoo. In content creation we definitely have assets other markets don’t have. Scott Painter , founder of CarsDirect has created two new generation LA startups (Zag and TrueCar, both backed by GRP Partners). You don’t. Get over it.

technology 290

technology advice entrepreneurs innovation 290

This is going to be BIG.

OCTOBER 22, 2017

Founders do most of the hard work. VCs can provide a useful piece of advice at a key moment--or help make a key hire, but the day in and day out grind is done by the work of the founder and the team, and they deserve 99.999999% of the credit. Founders are in that boat, too. No one is perfect.

VC 332

VC advice pitching opportunity 332

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 14, 2010

And we all know that Ron Conway is considered the savviest of angel investors and yet by definition not all of his investments succeed. The founders of Quora were respected technologists at Facebook and knew a thing or two about bacn and toast before setting up their highly sought after venture. Want to do a Q&A website?

angel investing 288

angel investing investment investing advice 288

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

about their marathon 4-hour sessions to get to zero inbox or somebody else claiming email bankruptcy ( definition if you don’t know it already ). I will even take to emailing people I don’t know offering small bits of advice. If you do randomly write me I have advice. Nobody really enjoys it. I try to be helpful.

advice 314

advice culture board VC 314

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 22, 2011

I recently spoke at the Founder Showcase at the request of Adeo Ressi. I’m no great scholar on bubbles – I have more interesting things to spend my time worrying about than the exact definition , but having been around a few I have at least given them intellectual consideration. I said that at the Founder Showcase, too.

real estate 309

real estate entrepreneurs financing finance 309

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 12, 2010

What disrespect they show founders / CEOs with these programs. But if that’s all that they’re after then entrepreneurs should definitely be wary of taking these calls. These founders burn through precious time and divulge sensitive information. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice. What a waste of my time.

VC 294

VC entrepreneurs advice investment 294

Entrepreneurs' Organization

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

By Brian Scudamore, an EO Vancouver member and founder of O2E Brands. He gave me invaluable advice over lunch, and his expertise was a reminder to seek out expert advice – every time. I believe with the right approach, anyone can get advice from the best in business. If you don’t ask, the answer is definitely no.

advice 100

advice mentorship culture networking 100

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 5, 2011

I’ve decided to take all of my private conversations and subjective points-of-view on the topic and make them public in a keynote speech at the Founder Showcase in San Francisco on June 15th. It’s the one bit of advice I find myself giving most frequently these days, “raise money at the top end of normal.&#.

startup 336

startup advice pitching investment 336

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2013

My internal compass has always steered me strongly toward the belief that founders who can scale with their startup companies are better to back that founders who eventually need to hire a CEO. Very few founder CEOs go into the job ever expecting to give up their seat. We set out to find Jonathan’s “co-founder.”

peer-to-peer 303

peer-to-peer energy founder advice 303

Y Combinator

OCTOBER 26, 2021

On November 17, we are hosting our second Aspiring Founders Forum for women who aspire to become a startup founder. Speakers will share their honest accounts of entrepreneurship, as well as essential startup advice. Speakers include: Jessica Livingston , Co-founder at Y Combinator. Holly Liu , Co-founder at Kabam.

founder 87

founder advice entrepreneurship communities 87

Smart Hustle Magazine

SEPTEMBER 20, 2019

Mark Levy is the founder of Levy Innovation LLC , a positioning and branding firm that helps thought leaders grow their personal brand and business. Mark leaves us with one final word of advice, and that’s “you’re the leader.” Maybe, But Differentiation Definitely Can appeared first on SmartHustle.com with Ramon Ray.

pitching 100

pitching leadership advice education 100

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 28, 2021

Contributed by Julia L F Goldstein, the founder of JLFG Communications , which helps businesses share their world-changing ideas through clear and concise content. Entrepreneurs, however, usually call themselves founders or CEOs. I can see listing my title as founder but don’t feel comfortable saying I’m a CEO.

entrepreneurs 306

entrepreneurs strategy sustainability financing 306

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

FEBRUARY 8, 2021

2017 YLAI Fellow Victor Rujano Bautista is the co-founder of Culturas Indígenas y Medio Ambiente Sustentable (CIMAS), an organization committed to promoting and defending the human rights of indigenous peoples and the protection of the environment in the Venezuelan state of Zulia. By Bryce Kelly.

communities 246

communities entrepreneurs ecology entrepreneurial ecosystem 246

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 3, 2011

And when asked about the topic, I definitely don’t shy away from the topic as you can see in this 8-minute YouTube interview that Pemo Theodore asked me to do on the subject of Women in Entrepreneurship. And many of the best women founders. Please watch this. Every single one. She opened a bakery and a restaurant.

entrepreneurs 341

entrepreneurs entrepreneurship VC pitching 341

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 2, 2015

The founder of the event, Paddy Cosgrave, smartly responded to the critics in a post I just read this morning. I met the founder on the street walking from the conference to my hotel. So I’ll close with actual advice I have a few days before this controversy began. His company had recently moved from Germany to the US.

networking 333

networking education transportation disruption 333

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 8, 2014

This meant: Less capital to start a company thus the rise of “micro VCs” Younger, more technical founders (not as big of a leap to take a risk on a 24-year-old when it’s $250k and not $5 million. So the startup work moves to where the startup founders live and not vice versa. Welcome to the future.

startup 390

startup communities venture capital angel capital 390

Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative

JUNE 7, 2019

Ashna Mahepal, founder of Young Help Suriname (YHS) , is a member of the YLAI Network and 2016 YLAI Fellow. It was definitely a challenge, but one she has overcome to help her organization grow. Check out the advice other YLAI Network members had on the challenges entrepreneurs face and the Top 10 Tips on Staying Motivated. .

entrepreneurs 214

entrepreneurs advice peer-to-peer sustainability 214

Entrepreneur's Handbook

AUGUST 16, 2023

What advice would you give your past self? Most founders I speak to agree that the startup journey is generally discouraging, overrun with unsolvable challenges and many many mistakes. I posed a question to twenty-one other founders, across many different industries from media to finance, from SaaS to urban farming.

founder 84

founder peer-to-peer advice energy 84

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 6, 2010

But if you identify investors with whom you’d like to work here’s my advice: 1. Everyone has their own definition of momentum (user numbers, revenue, channel partners, biz dev deals, whatever). Almost every deal I’ve ever funded I’ve gotten to know the founders over time. That’s OK, too.

startup 360

startup VC advice entrepreneurs 360

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 27, 2014

Co-founder discontent. And why my advice to newer VCs would be not to feel bad if you’re missing out on what is perceived as a few hot deals. Reference checking is to confirm or disprove a strong, positive intuition you already have about founders that could lead to an investment or a pass. Health destroying stress.

VC 374

VC investment investing entrepreneurs 374

Y Combinator

JUNE 30, 2022

YC has run events to educate and support women in tech, and now we’re doubling down to offer tailored advice that’s specific to you and your career. We’re setting up chats for women engineers to get one-on-one career advice from YC, starting with Anu Hariharan, Managing Director of YC Continuity.

advice 98

advice education support startup 98

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 6, 2011

I was hanging out the other day with my buddy Jody Sherman, founder & CEO of EcoMom. Because my wife is a superstar she published them all on a blog here along with much other wonderful type-A mom advice. Q&A with Babak Nivi and Naval Ravikant, founders of AngelList. Through this process he raised $2 million.

VC 292

VC peer-to-peer investment investing 292

TechCrunch

JANUARY 8, 2022

Even to outsiders, the inner workings of startup accelerators has become familiar: pumped up on camaraderie and energy drinks, scrappy founders do product demos onstage before a room full of buzzy journalists and investors. In this instance, we failed to follow our own advice.”.

startup accelerator 92

startup accelerator accelerator startup energy 92

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 10, 2012

In driving down the costs of building businesses it’s driving down the age of startup founders and thus they’re starting companies where young people want to live – in urban environments. I think NY has always – by definition – been urban. These days it’s Santa Monica and Venice. And with startups so go VCs.

technology 313

technology incubation VC ventures 313

Hunter Walk

NOVEMBER 11, 2024

I was introduced to Apoorva , the founder of Instacart, in the spring of 2013 by my close friend/business school neighbor Rafael Corrales. Apoorva was looking to bring on a non-technical co-founder as he entered YC, and my epic bad decision was not to jump at the opportunity to join Instacart at that moment.

board 104

board collaboration energy advice 104

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 9, 2013

By definition leaders make hard choices given incomplete information. I have seen the sclerotic pace of decision-making by some co-founders who don’t have a common sense of purpose of the ability to resolve conflict when different opinions result in delayed actions. It’s hard being a leader.

accelerator 413

accelerator founder startup advice 413

Founders Coop

APRIL 29, 2024

This post is an effort to unpack what’s required of a startup accelerator to truly serve the needs of high-performing founders. Every time I talk to someone about the work we do at Founders’ Co-op , I have to first explain that we don’t really care about technology or business ideas per se. Aviel and I know something about this.

startup accelerator 149

startup accelerator accelerator peer-to-peer startup 149

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 6, 2010

There are definitely times where a more narrowly defined question makes sense and where you want to guide the person you’re talking with to a narrow boundary to illicit a certain type of response. I was interviewing the founder of a prominent company of which many of you would have heard.

advice 311

advice investment investing strategy 311

This is going to be BIG.

JULY 13, 2023

I was also making some brash public statements that won me points with some founders but irked my teammates who didn’t really feel like I was repping our firm appropriately. To navigate this tightrope, I sought out the advice of a coach—Jerry Colonna. Also, maybe you don’t have the same definition of VC success.

education 195

education advice VC startup ecosystem 195

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2011

I hold true to form and follow my own advice. I turned around and there was StockTwits founder (and my favorite Tweeter) Howard Lindzon. And we’re here with Dan Martell , who like any great startup founder is wearing his company t-shirt for Flowtown. Wendy Tan White, the founder of Moonfruit. He was there, too.

mix-use 294

mix-use accelerator opportunity startup accelerator 294

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 30, 2010

My advice to entrepreneurs was and is “ when the hors d’oeuvres tray is being passed take two ” (e.g. VC funding is definitely back from the constipation that was 2009 replete with frothy valuations chasing dreams of the next Facebook, Groupon or Zynga. Tags: Startup Advice Tech Market Analysis.

entrepreneurs 298

entrepreneurs real estate VC advice 298

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 27, 2012

Recently I wrote a post arguing to make the definition of a Startup more inclusive than that to which Silicon Valley, fueled by Venture Capital return profiles, would sometimes like to attach to the word. A Strong Pool of Tech Founders – Stating the obvious. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch. Here are mine: 1.

communities 378

communities startup venture capital capital 378

TechCrunch

MAY 15, 2023

If a VC has experience in a different field, it may not translate well — if at all — to a startup, and advice around certain business decisions could quickly become outdated. There is a growing group of VC funds led by folks who think they might be better suited to back companies because they are currently startup founders themselves.

founder 98

founder VC venture capital advice 98

Entrepreneurs' Organization

MAY 1, 2024

Andile Khumalo, founder and CEO of KhumaloCo., shared his experience around starting a business, the effects it had on his mental health and his advice on taking care of yourself and your business. Loneliness is definitely a reality in entrepreneurship. We all have different definitions of success.

health 194

health entrepreneurship entrepreneurial ecosystem entrepreneurs 194