This is part of my ongoing series “ Start-up Lessons. ” often talk with entrepreneurs who are kicking around their next idea.  Sometimes Imagine you pour 5 years of your life into your next gig and it starts to become successful.  Would When I hear entrepreneurs say that they’re kicking around ideas with 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 Startup Advice .  Many startup companies hire advisory boards.  It’s mostly done by first-time entrepreneurs who want to persuade (bribe?) If you plan to set one up – no problem.  It’s very tempting.  prominent industry luminaries to be closely associated with the company. 

This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC” – the outline is here . You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s.  Your friends and advisers tell you that this means you need revenue because in this economy VC’s will only fund businesses with revenue.  Traction really is about Everybody seems to like you but nobody seems to be getting out their checkbooks.  Most of them are telling you that they just need to see a bit of traction before they’d be prepared to invest.

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

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 ).  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. I know that people have an allergy to lawyers out of fear of being screwed.  Much of this is unfounded – some is not. 

We started with our financial statements.  We 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 But they were in a slide and people asked you questions so 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.

This is part of my ongoing posts on  Startup Advice .  There are people who tell startups that they should hire the most senior people that they can find.  Please don’t also confuse this with whether a VC should invest in a CEO who’s done it before – that’s a given. It is tempting because you not only see that they were Only Hire A+ People Who Punch Above Their Weight Class I’m not one of those. 

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. wanted to also post the series here to have it as a resource on my blog for future entrepreneurs who stop by.  One of the questions I’m most often asked as a VC is If you haven’t spent time over there you should. I

This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC .” The “Triple Play” of VC Presentations large part of my series has been outlining what the typical VC PowerPoint presentation should look like.  Some Can you just show up without one?  Short photo courtesy of Atlanta Braves 8221;

This is part of my ongoing series on Raising Venture Capital . Recently I’ve been debating with a number of young startup companies that are raising money in the next few months, “what is the right about of capital to raise at a startup?” Let me assume for this discussion it’s a garden variety 2010 IT or Internet business (as opposed to something requiring capital equipment or a life sciences project).  Any 8221; It’s a tricky question with no clear answer.  There