This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. ” Imagine you pour 5 years of your life into your next gig and it starts to become successful.  Would 8221;  The problem is that you’re opening yourself up to a claim by one of these people that you somehow stole their ideas.  I 8221;  If you want to subscribe to my RSS feed please click here or to get my blog by email click here . In the Beginning …

This is part of my ongoing series called “ Start-up Lessons .” I came across this blog post about getting a computer science degree as the best degree for getting into venture capital or working at a VC-backed start up. BCG, Bain, LEK – they’re all great), a few years at a start-up or a few years somewhere like Microsoft, Google, Amazon or Apple.  8221; I

Francisco Dao came up with the idea of letting 10 companies that weren’t selected for Twiistup to do a presentation the night before to a group of people and let the audience pick one company to win the final slot at Twiistup.  I I’ll put up the video when they post it on their website. Many of them have their iPhones and laptops Most people suck at presenting to big groups.  It’s It’s a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential

Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and [...] ...Tags: Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advic This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC. Last

2006 was the last time I went out to raise venture capital.  I One very important item from Chris’s original post that wasn’t picked up by Fred or Brad is founder vesting.  Chris I sum it up here (but read Chris’s link above) I regularly bring this up with founders as I want them to This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “. There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The

Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital, more seed or A round than angel), Scot Sangster (with OrganicStartup and the best spokesperson for Tech Coast Angels that I have met to date), Tom McInerney (TGM) and Jarl Mohn (who invests on his own “account” and whose track record is truly humbling). Good idea & plan: You must start with a good idea and a PowerPoint deck (my outline is here , scroll down

started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur :  Tenacity .  I The problem was that he was still working out the lock-up period in his big company. If this idea was so big then why would they risk not being first to market, not building defensible IP for the sake of a few hundred thousand dollars extra in lock-up money at a big company? This is part of my series on  what makes an entrepreneur successful .  I originally posted it on  VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.

Tags: Pitching VCs Start-up Advice startup technology vc venture capita This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC” – the outline is here. You’ve You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s.  Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks. 

If you plan to set one up – no problem.  Advisory Board Problems : There are several problems that I have encountered myself and in my many discussions with CEO’s who have set up advisory boards. come out of the gate strong and never let up) then you might get some attention.  You’ve This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice .  Many startup companies hire advisory boards. 

Many entrepreneurs who start technology companies are product people, technologists or savvy business people who worked previously for a larger company.  Most start-up entrepreneurs have little or no sales experience.  Even businesses that attempt to sign up customers directly on a website need to answer this question for people albeit programmatically and through good website copy.  This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice .  I know I didn’t.