Founders and Fundraising
How Long Should Your Startup Pitch Take?
Imagine you’ve been invited to present your company to the full partnership of a VC firm. You bring the executive team with you because you felt it was the right thing to do. You start out your pitch to the partnership. You barely get going before one of the partners interrupts you and says, “Before…
Read MoreWhat Can You Add To A Term Sheet To Keep From Being Fired?
You’re looking for protection to keep your investors from replacing you. A term sheet is not going to do it. The cold, hard reality is you lose control of your company the second you take funding from outside investors. This doesn’t mean that your investors are going to replace you. Why would they if you’re…
Read MoreWhat Tasks Do You Need To Do Every Day As An Entrepreneur?
I was talking Friday with a CEO I am advising named “Paul”. Paul’s in fund-raising mode right now. Nothing else matters when you’re in fund-raising mode except raising your money. I told Paul, “You need to have a laser-like focus on raising your funding. Let me put it to you bluntly: “Don’t spend time on…
Read MoreIs It Worth Starting A Company When You’ve Just Graduated College?
My Dad gave me some great advice when I was graduating college. He told me to take my chances when I was young. And, as I fast-forward ahead ten years to when my daughter will be graduating college, I wonder what I would say to Avery if she told me she wanted to start a…
Read MoreWhat Is The Best Way To Keep Your Equity As You Raise Funding?
I’ll never forget one of our investors saying to me, “There’s a certain percentage ownership you’re going to end up with, and there’s a certain percentage ownership we’re going to end up with. “The rest of it doesn’t matter.” The point our investor was trying to make was there a fair outcome for both of…
Read MoreHow Do You Build A Great Founding Team?
The average age of the engineering team at my company was 44 years old. The engineering averaged 20 years of experience per engineer, and the engineers on average had 10 patents. The team, by industry standards, was considered elite. Now, I assume you want to recruit really good senior people, not just mediocre senior employees.…
Read MoreDo You Need A Technical Background As CEO Of A Technology Company?
There is a one-word answer for why so many former engineers are now CEOs of technology companies. And that one-word answer is: Respect. Simply put, being an engineer running a technology company gives you some tremendous advantages: A. You engineering team will be more likely to respect you. Engineers like working with people that understand…
Read MoreWhy Is Paying Yourself A Living Wage As CEO So Important?
You work really hard for years building your company. And you’re burning through your savings as you build your company. Finally, finally you get your company to cash flow positive. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Thank goodness,” you say to yourself. “We’re finally free of needing more…
Read MoreWhat Skills Should You Learn As An Entrepreneur?
Someone just messaged me this: “Hey Brett, I’m just about to start a company. What do I need to know to be successful?” Here’s my answer: I don’t know whether these are learned skills or traits you are born with, but these are the traits/skills you are going to need to have in order to…
Read MoreWhat Is The Best Way To Get Introduced To Potential Investors?
I’m sorry, but it’s very rare that investors are going to come to you. You can try sitting back and waiting, but I certainly wouldn’t advise that approach. I can only tell you what I did which was the old fashioned way: I networked my ass off to get as many warm introductions as I…
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