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Funding Your Startup: Capital Literacy and Action
Funding Your Startup: Capital Literacy and Action From a Hair-on-Fire Problem to a Working Prototype – Article 1 of 4 Over the years of mentoring and advising founders, I have found one aspect of the startup journey that has withstood the test of time: nearly every conversation eventually focuses on raising money. While nearly every founder…
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Optimism Is Killing You: Founders Need a Professional Skeptic
Optimism Is Killing You: Founders Need a Professional Skeptic Startup founders in nascent ecosystems get a lot of encouragement. That is not a bad thing. Starting a company is hard. There are plenty of days when nothing seems to work, customers disappear, technology breaks, funding gets tight, and the team starts questioning whether the whole…
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Being Busy is Not the Same as Successfully Launching Startups
Being Busy is Not the Same as Successfully Launching Startups Being busy is not the same as building my startup, and I really want to start there because I learned that the hard way. For a long time, I thought that if my calendar was full, my inbox was overflowing, and I was constantly switching…
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Amazing Tech Founders Find Answers Faster
Amazing Tech Founders Find Answers Faster The dangerous idea I hear floating around entrepreneurship: the founder is supposed to know everything. The founder should know the market, the technology, the customer, the competition, how to raise money, how to build a team, how to set prices, how to sell the product, and somehow predict what…
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Coachability is a Competitive Advantage (And You’re Failing It)
Coachability is a Competitive Advantage (And You’re Failing It) One of the most challenging concepts for the over 3,000 funders I’ve mentored and advised over the years is coachability. What the heck does that even mean? Here’s how I see it. Coachability doesn’t start after the meeting; it starts the second you open your mouth.…
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ADHD – The Entrepreneur’s Hidden Advantage…
ADHD – The Entrepreneur’s Hidden Advantage… What I Learned from Mentoring 3,000 Founders After mentoring more than 3,000 entrepreneurs over the past two decades, I began noticing a pattern I couldn’t ignore. During that time, I’ve had the privilege of working with some of the most brilliant minds. The experience was both inspiring and eye-opening.…
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Developing Your Own Mentor Program in an Emerging Tech Hub
Developing Your Own Mentor Program in an Emerging Tech Hub Why Every Nascent or Emerging Innovation Community Needs a Structured Path for Scalable Startup Mentoring In every strong startup ecosystem, regardless of its size, city, or industry, one truth stands out: mentors determine the altitude of founders. Great mentors accelerate learning, reduce mistakes, raise the…
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Creating Buzz vs. Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset Machine
Creating Buzz vs. Building an Entrepreneurial Mindset Machine: Why Startup Events Are Not Enough in a Nascent Ecosystem In many emerging or early-stage startup ecosystems, people often believe that hosting more events, such as pitch nights, mixers, demo days, and innovation fairs, will magically create a strong community of entrepreneurs. These events are fun, energizing,…
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Search in a Haystack – Find a Great Startup Mentor
Search in a Haystack – Find a Great Startup Mentor How Tech Startup Founders Can Find Great Mentors in a Nascent Ecosystem Finding a great mentor can be one of the most essential steps in building a successful tech startup. However, in a nascent ecosystem, where the startup community is still young, small, or scattered,…
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Most Advisors Aren’t Great Mentors
Most Advisors Aren’t Great Mentors What’s the Difference Between Startup Advisors and Mentors, and How Do You Become a Great Mentor? If you’re starting a tech company, you’ve probably heard people say, “You need good advisors and mentors.” But what do those roles really mean? Are they the same thing? And what if you want…
