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Friday, August 28, 2009
This is part of my ongoing series Startup Lessons
I started my first company in 1999 in London at the height of the dot com craze. We It didn’t add up to me. How Bad morale is the enemy of any company let alone a start up.” Building companies is hard work. I We also had facilities in Dublin, Ireland where our company was initially founded.
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Thursday, January 21, 2010
If you’re a startup and you don’t have a close relationship with a few law firms you’re really missing one of the most important relationships that any entrepreneur can have.
When to get a lawyer - If you plan to be a venture or angel backed technology company (what I mostly write about) the best time to start meeting and getting to know lawyers is long before you ever start your company. I recently read a post over on VentureHacks titled, “ Top Ten Reasons Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers ” written by Scott Walker (who blogs on legal issues for entrepreneurs ).
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Friday, February 12, 2010
We started with our financial statements. We Then competition. I So I changed things up and became much happier with my results. Here 1. Set two strategic topics per board meeting and start with them – I bet most of you feel that you have pretty talented people around the table but you get stuck talking about the minutiae of your business. You Like many of you I’ve sat through my fair share of Board Meetings over the past decade. For For the most part I’d call them Bored Meetings.
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Tuesday, January 26, 2010
In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up . I used an image from Roger Smith that describes the varying roles of a CTO as the company matures. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. Most often at the earliest point in the life of a startup, the dominant need is certainly to produce product to get something in the market, get funding, etc. I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies.
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Thursday, December 17, 2009
started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity . I Every entrepreneur starts with an idea that they believe makes sense. But then your customes start using your products, your competitors come out with new offerings and your business partners decide to launch a similar product rather than working with you. This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful . I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.
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Sunday, February 14, 2010
of all statistics are made up. I started my life as a consultant. Fortunately One of our core tasks was “market analysis,” which consistent of: market sizing, market forecasts, competitive analysis and then instructing customers on which direction to take.
I had to read each report, synthesis it and then come up with our best estimate of the markets going forward. In How to Interpret Analyst Reports
The headlines in the media are filled with that latest stats. Stats
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Friday, December 18, 2009
started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute: Tenacity . I You’ve got to be able to come out of unsuccessful VC meetings, pull your socks up, and go into the next pitch. You’ve got to hear all of the doubters, and the world is FILLED with doubters, and still not give up. This is part of my new series on what makes an entrepreneur successful . I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs.
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Sunday, September 20, 2009
The promised to follow up with: calls, using your product, talking to customers or “noodle on things.” Despite best intentions they probably won’t follow up on their actions. Why don’t VC’s follow up? If any of this happens it’s This is part of my ongoing series, “ Pitching a VC .” 8221; Getting a meeting with a prominent angel or VC is difficult enough. Some
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Monday, February 8, 2010
The one where they HAD BETTER say good things about you because if they don’t then you’re really messed up for not suggesting the right people and calling them in advance to control the process and make sure that they say good things. Good when you missed your targets, when your co-founder quit, when the competition chose your competitor or when the other investors around the table lost confidence? Don’t This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital .
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Tuesday, January 12, 2010
I scan it for the most important messages to be sure nothing urgent has popped up.
8221; They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. About six months ago I signed up for a service called PhoneTag run by Jamie Siminoff . They I recently wrote a post about avoiding the “ Deferred Life Plan ” and some related thoughts about personal productivity that came from Tim Ferriss’s book, The Four Hour Workweek.
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