I’ve never understood why investors don’t tell startup CEOs exactly what they want to see their portfolio companies present in a board meeting. Instead, startup CEOs are left to figure it out for themselves which leads to lots of problems including the board losing faith in the CEO. None of these problems are necessary. I’ve…
You can’t be afraid to socialize your idea with the right people at the right time. If you socialize your idea to the wrong people at the wrong time, then you will not get the desired effect you want. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. So, let’s say…
The one thing that you can almost never recover from is choosing the wrong investor or investors to work with. I’ve seen the wrong investors kill or almost kill too many startups to count. I want you to know what are the five traits of good angel investors. In today’s video, I’m going to explain…
I learned a really great lesson years ago about the power of controlling the flow of information. Let me set the scene for you. I was watching a company pitch to the VC fund I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at. The CEO went out of his way to talk about the competition, the…
I was in the lobby of “Donald Ventures” office on Sand Hill Road after I completed my 1:1 with “Raul,” the partner leading DV’s investment in our company. One of the associates at the fund walked by me, and said hello. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I…
A surefire way to scare your investors and board members to death is to spend the cash you have too quickly on crazy things. In fact, understanding your finances and incorrectly communicating your finances is a great way to get fired. Yet, too many startup CEOs don’t know their numbers and then make matters worse…
I was recently asked the question, “What should I do to keep an employee that has quit from leaving.” I was happy to answer the question because I have a perfect batting average as CEO of keeping employees from quitting. That’s right. 0.00%. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
You and your co-founder start your company, and you divide up the equity between you. It sounds simple enough, right. Then you raise money and your new investors demand you have a vesting schedule for your equity. So the question is are your investors right? Do you really need a vesting schedule for your equity?…
When I was feeling really desperate (a common occurrence when I was raising our initial funding), I would build up a list of potential investors I had no way of getting a warm introduction to. You can learn how to develop a cold email that works too. Just follow these three steps: Step 1:…
Most CEOs wait too long before they raise their seed funding or venture funding, which almost always results in their startups failing. I don’t want that to happen to you. In today’s video, I’m going to explain to you: Should you raise funding? What you’ll need to raise funding? Who you should raise money from?…