Last week, I was on a panel with other investors discussing the “do’s� and “don’ts� of angel and venture capital investing some one from the audience fired a series of intriguing compounded questions � why are the VC’s so illusive?, why don’t they have all their information available? etc.). There is no “absolute� formula!

In my days, I have met with many many entrepreneurs. We have agreed and disagreed on things, learned from each other, and experienced disappointments and successes together. Here is “one� way to slice and dice the group. They have a shotgun approach - the more bullets in the air the higher the chance of a hit. Aim carefully and focus.

There is just too much to say about the topic and I have been warned about being too verbose with lengthily postings so this is a 3 posting series. Following is the first posting: Some Good reasons to Bootstrap 1- Bootstrapping ensures that you build your business on legitimate, real world value propositions.

I got the following question from an entrepreneur and I thought I share it with everyone. œWhy do many startups actually fail? would love to hear from you your views on why startups fail? cheers, Vaibhavâ€� There may be a thousand different reasons, but here is an attempt at simplifying a clearly completed question.

AND CLUES FOR A SUCCESSFUL PRESENTATION! In the past couple of weeks I have heard a few pitches and noticed some common ingredients. So in my humble opinion here is what did not work. 1- Selling features and product capabilities as opposed to a vision and a company. 2- Being in love with the idea and failing to see the need for a business model.

One of the topics that came up in my post Mobile Internet Apple Facebook was around open vs. closed platforms. This issue comes up at the start of almost every new startup company in a variety of forms. m constantly struggling with trying to figure out the best way to pull together solutions, especially with how fast things move. That’s it.

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up. used an image from Roger Smith that describes the varying roles of a CTO as the company matures. Gap closed, right?

A post by Fred Wilson pointed me to Dave McClure's Startup Metrics presentation. This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. This kind of a simple model also helps: Define the early proof points for the company. You only build what you need to prove that model. Great stuff.

I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. was just talking with someone who asked me to define how that could work and what they meant. Great question. Roger Smith ) This helps explain where I normally play. During Stabilization, often the focus is transitioning to a full-time CTO.

Because I was the Acting CTO for eHarmony at it's start, I quite often get introduced to people who have an idea for a startup company that is based on some kind of matching algorithm. They describe the company as the eHarmony of careers, clothes, jobs, college, tutoring services, doctors, service companies, investments, etc. That feels powerful.