Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 14, 2023

If you sold your last startup for $800 million, you probably already know how to build a business, and even conservative investors won’t worry about the quality of your next business plan. There really is no excuse these days, with samples on the Internet, business-plan books in every bookstore, and dozens of apps to automate the process.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 29, 2023

That’s why I’m impressed with the classic book, “ All Dreams on Deck: Charting the Course for Your Life and Work ,” by Jeremy Cage. In his book, he couches his guidance in a real-life metaphor of his sailing trip around the world. Never give up in the face of adversity. Ask for help from advisors and mentor your team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 30, 2020

There has long been a big debate about the best approach to starting a new business. Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2022

You have to be extra tough mentally to start a new business venture. I learned some good lessons along these lines from the classic book “ The Way of the SEAL ,” by Mark Divine. I learned some good lessons along these lines from the classic book “ The Way of the SEAL ,” by Mark Divine. Are you up to the challenge?

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

In my consulting work, when I ask team members in startups and small businesses how they know whether they are doing a good job, the typical response I get is “Nobody has yelled at me today,” or “No news is good news.” I can relate to this and other insights in his new book, “ Simple Truths of Leadership ,” with co-author Randy Conley.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 26, 2020

Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. One answer is for the developer to find a partner, like Steve Jobs, who is a leader to build and run the business, and two heads in a startup are almost always better than one.

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InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 4, 2019

Impressed with her wit and insights during her talk, I was excited to read her latest book, Thinking In Bets. Annie has previously written several well-received poker strategy books. As she notes in the books Introduction, “…a bet really is: a decision about an unknown future.” For me, the book fulfilled this promise.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 18, 2023

There has long been a big debate about the best approach to starting a new business. Some argue the only way to start is to drop everything and jump in with both feet, while others recommend an overlapped approach to the lifestyle, including not quitting your day job until you have revenue and a proven business model.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 4, 2021

The last thing they can afford is to waste any of these, but in my mentoring and coaching activities, I see it happening all too often. Waste in a startup is any activity that burns resources, but creates no value or competitive advantage in the eyes of customers. In the startup world, this is often seen as a lack of focus.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 20, 2017

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Yet most entrepreneurs simply don’t know how to work with a mentor. Some of the best mentoring relationships don’t involve monetary compensation, but none are free. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 21, 2020

As a mentor to aspiring entrepreneurs, I often feel the frustration of someone trying to build a startup in the wrong place and time, and wrongly attributing their struggle to personal limitations. I saw these addressed well in a new book, “ The Startup Community Way ,” by Brad Feld and Ian Hathaway.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 10, 2013

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Even one of the richest, Bill Gates , still values his friend Warren Buffett as his mentor. Mentoring is not as simple as one person giving the other all the right answers. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 30, 2012

Every entrepreneur can learn from a mentor, no matter how confident or successful they have been to date. Even one of the richest, Bill Gates , still values his friend Warren Buffett as his mentor. Mentoring is not as simple as one person giving the other all the right answers. Agree on specific objectives and time frames.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 3, 2012

Every first-time entrepreneur, or even an experienced founder stepping into a new business area, needs a mentor. Nothing you have ever done raises so many questions, or has the potential to be so fulfilling, or so risky, as starting a new business for the first time. Mentors are not like lovers. You need both.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2020

Entrepreneurs inherently understand that they have to be the initial leader of their startup, but often they don’t have the experience or the training to know where their leadership competencies lie, or how to build a leadership team. They are excellent mentors and coaches, but have a strong need to be admired and respected in return.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 15, 2017

In my experience working with startups, the best approach these days is to find and use a good mentor (been there, done that). Of course, mentoring is not new – it’s been the favored way to learn arts and crafts since way back in the middle ages. But I assert that mentoring in business is making a comeback.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2018

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them almost ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business. Their success is now vital to our success.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 24, 2020

One of the most stressful and unanticipated challenges that comes with starting a new business is hiring and managing employees. I just finished a new book for entrepreneurs, “ Secrets to a Successful Startup ,” by Trevor Blake, which makes the same points, based on his own real-life experience with three successful startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 23, 2021

Ironically, as a startup investor and mentor, I have seen too many failures caused by just the opposite – too much money spent too soon, taking time to get product perfection, and assuming customers will wait. How many times have you actually made up work to keep an idle person busy? Rethink or reframe the challenge.

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 20, 2021

I see the commonalities detailed well in the classic book, “ Extreme Teams ,” by Robert Bruce Shaw. The most effective teams are built from people with a strong sense of values and commitment, starting at the top of the company. Teams must openly deal with their own weaknesses and take action on underperformers. Marty Zwilling.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 13, 2021

The challenge is to retain the same sense of urgency, energy, commitment, and readiness in a mature company that you felt during the startup stage. The importance and reality of this need has been detailed well in the classic book, “ State of Readiness ,” by Joseph F. Set-up for success and don’t set-up for failure.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2020

That’s why I’m impressed with the classic book, “ All Dreams on Deck: Charting the Course for Your Life and Work ,” by Jeremy Cage. In his book, he couches his guidance in a real-life metaphor of his sailing trip around the world. Never give up in the face of adversity. Ask for help from advisors and mentor your team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 1, 2021

I n my experience mentoring new entrepreneurs and aspiring business leaders, I see far too many who seem to be driven by all the wrong reasons. In his most memorable book, “ The Art of The Start 2.0 ,” Guy Kawasaki exhorts entrepreneurs to focus on making meaning, not money. Find personal meaning from building a business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 4, 2020

If you are seriously looking to start the next billion-dollar startup, you need to get beyond the realm of enhancing a current solution. Rather than starting from a mindset of pushing the limits of technology, be determined to first find a customer need that can only be solved by the technology you know.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail. The importance and the specifics of practical team leadership were re-confirmed to me a while back in the classic book, “ Unlocked ,” by Robert S.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 7, 2022

Most of you business professionals that I know have at least thought about or talked about starting their own business, to get more control, make more money, or to get more satisfaction out of their life. As a mentor to young aspiring entrepreneurs , I often get asked for tips on a strategy to get started.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2023

Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. For these reasons, I always look for an overt exit strategy in every startup I might consider for an angel investment. Set your startup health gauges and use them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2023

I recall a good summary of how to motivate and train a team to accomplish this in the classic book, “ The Business of Creativity: How to Build the Right Team for Success ,” by Keith Granet. The best startups give everyone business cards and encourage team members to talk about the business with anyone who should be interested.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 18, 2021

I hope all this seems obvious to you, but I still get a good number of notes from “entrepreneurs” who have been busy inventing things all their life, but can’t find a partner to start their first business, and others trying to find an executive, an investor, or a lawyer. It should end by asking for something, to start the relationship.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 22, 2020

One of the biggest myths I have found in the entrepreneur community is that every startup needs one or more outside investors for credibility and success, and perhaps is even entitled to at least one. Draw up a list of the best prospects, and put together your best story for follow-up. But don’t wait for them to contact you.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 9, 2021

Although many won’t admit it, true entrepreneurs can’t wait to exit their current startup, and build a new and better one with their next great idea. For these reasons, I always look for an overt exit strategy in every startup I might consider for an angel investment. Set your startup health gauges and use them.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 28, 2021

As an angel investor in early-stage startups, I’ve long noticed my peers apparent bias toward the strength and character of the founding entrepreneurs, often overriding a strong solution to a painful problem with a big opportunity. Find and enjoy the company of one or more mentors.

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Jason Nazar

JANUARY 1, 2016

I never bought books, rarely went to class, and hardly studied for exams. But I did spent those four years starting businesses and courting many mentors to help me along the way. Instead of studying for my classes, I’d set up new meet & greet meetings with successful alums. Who should you pick as your mentor?

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

Millennials have come a long way in business since I started writing about them over ten years ago. They started out as that spoiled generation of kids, born between about 1982 and 2004, who had everything, and could care less about business. Today they are in every business and will likely comprise 75 percent of the workforce by 2025.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2023

Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. One answer is for the developer to find a partner, like Steve Jobs, who is a leader to build and run the business, and two heads in a startup are almost always better than one.

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Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 10, 2014

In a VC business when you raise additional capital you need to “level up” and act the round you are. It’s why I wrote this post that the controversial first hire after an A round out to be an office manager / assistant / HR person who handles everything from stocking supplies to booking travel to scheduling group meetings.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 21, 2012

I’m a big fan of mentoring in business, and have been at different times on both the contributing and receiving end of the process. These days, I seem to often hear from entrepreneurs who are struggling to find a mentor, or complaining about their lack of effectiveness. When you meet with a mentor, you should lead the discussion.

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