Founders and Fundraising
How Do You Prepare For Investor Due Diligence?
“We won’t talk to anyone you don’t want us to,” “Raul”, a potential investor in my startup, said to me. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I nodded my head. I had already given Raul a list of names, as he requested, as reference checks. In addition, my…
Read MoreHow To Validate Your Startup Idea In 7 Steps
Wouldn’t it be great if you could validate your startup idea in less than one hour because you absolutely, positively have to validate your startup idea? Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. There are seven steps that you need to take to validate your startup idea. And I’m…
Read MoreHow Do You Make A Startup Pitch Deck For Investors
Creating a startup pitch deck, especially if you’ve never done it, is tough to do. You have to somehow, in a very short time period, convince investors that may know a limited amount about your company, why your company is going to make a ton of money. How short a time frame do you have?…
Read MoreWhat Do You Do When You Get A Term Sheet?
“I believe this term sheet explodes like a pumpkin at 5PM. Here’s my number. Call me before then if you’re interested in accepting my terms,” “Raul”, our potential new investor, said to me. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I had just spent the last thirty minutes trying…
Read MoreWhat You Should Worry About As A Startup CEO?
“How much cash do we have left?” I asked Tina, our very able controller. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “We have $197,000 and change left, Brett. That’s enough to run the company for another three months,” Tina replied. “Okay, assuming we close (our funding) on schedule, then…
Read MoreHow To Determine Equity For Startup Founders
How to determine the equity splits between you and your co-founders is a key indicator of whether the relationship between you will work out. Unless you and your co-founders are happy with the results there will be problems ahead. Over 50% of all co-founder relationships end in failure. In today’s video, I’ll explore how you…
Read MoreHow Much Equity Should You Give Advisors?
A little over two years ago, Jim, a well known entrepreneur, began singing my praises all over social media. He didn’t have to do what he was doing. I thought it would be nice to say thanks. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. So I reached out to…
Read MoreIs Starting Your Own Company Worth it?
“It’s a mug’s game, then?” Dave, one of the hosts of the podcast Jeroen, my co-founder and VP Engineering, and I were being interviewed on, said to us. I had just finished telling him that the odds of raising funding for a startup are around one in one hundred. So, Dave was rightfully asking me…
Read MoreHow Do You Do Market Research For Your Startup?
Back in the day, long before the internet, I would drive over to Stanford University to do my market research. The business school had a really nice library where I could find just about everything I wanted. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. This would be my ritual…
Read MoreWhy Investors Can’t Fix Your Startup
“We help the daring build legendary companies!” One legendary Silicon Valley venture capital fund exclaims on their home page. “We are in the company building business.” exclaimed another well-known VC fund. I’m here to tell you that all these marketing claims from VCs are just that, marketing claims. VCs can’t help you build your startup.…
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