know that this will sound like a random post topic for startup advice but I promise it’s relevant.  You When I started blogging I had an idea.  I I would take all of the one-on-one conversations that I have with entrepreneurs from the things I’ve learned and just write them up for anybody to read.  This File this under entrepreneurial advice I

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 ). 

This was evident at the Twiistup pre-event company pitch last week at UCLA.  Francisco 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. 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

It’s the person who never gives up – who never accepts “no” for an answer.  If you’re already running a startup you know all this.  But some founders have that extra quality that makes them never give up.  It just so happened that there was a conference coming up run 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.

This is part of my ongoing series Startup Advice .  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.  But through nearly I know I didn’t.  1.

Many entrepreneurs make the mistake of thinking that funding is something you do in “funding season,” some mythical  2-month period when you’re ready with a great Powerpoint deck and you hit up all of the VC’s at the same time so that you can quickly raise money and get back to the job of building a business. Fund raising is an ongoing process and not an event on a workplan.  This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC” – the outline is here . You’ve pitched several angels and VC’s. 

This is part of my ongoing series “Start-up Lessons” want to talk about that day after the event.  I I could be TC50 or any other high profile event.  It I’m not going to cover in this post the obvious post-show marketing tasks such as following up on all those business cards you grabbed, communicating with all those people who registered at your site and leveraging your Tonight I was reading a good blog post ( here ) from Sean Powers with Alistair Croll on preparing yourself for the TC50 “bump” – the rise in traffic that a company gets from presenting at TechCrunch 50.  Worth

started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur :  Tenacity .  I If I’m up super late trying to crank out work I often get IM messages from Jason at 1am.  He attends many social events in the LA scene but he seems to always go back to the office afterward. 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.

This is part of my ongoing series with Startup Advice .  With With the LeWeb conference about to start in Paris I thought the timing of this post would be appropriate. Right after Techcrunch50 Michael Arrington wrote this great post on how to interact at business events and conferences .  If But don’t assume that Business Etiquette Tips for dealing with VCs and Corporates at Conferences If you haven’t read it, please do.  It’s

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