I recently attended a discussion on startup company culture hosted by Ridge VC. I have always thought that company culture is important, but before this discussion, I had never considered why it is important. I suspect many founders haven’t either, and I recommend doing so. Here are my thoughts: What is culture? Company culture is a set of […]
How to Get What You Need As A Founder
I have many conversations with founders that start with “I need…” “I need to raise money.” “I need to hire more people.” “I need to find some more customers.” It is very easy to develop tunnel vision when building your company as you are tackling difficult problems everyday. Your world consists of aggressive (maybe impossible) […]
The Three Most Important Words For Founders
When I was a first-time founder, I aspired to be completely in control. All of my role models were passionate visionaries who appeared to have all the right answers. I thought the role as the founder was to be sure of what to do in any situation. That, of course, is an impossible ideal and […]
Cheating is Allowed
One of the things I struggle tracing with as an artist is a constant inferiority complex. Although I am a pretty good illustrator, I feel like I am a complete novice whenever I spend time on art sites and see the amazing work done by others. I have spent 20 years learning and perfecting my […]
When Customers Attack
Not all of your customers will love you. In fact, many of them will not even like you. In my career building products and services, I have been referred to as: an idiot, a moron, incompetent, a joker, and many, many more offensive terms involving profanity which I will not reproduce here. It is hard […]
Outside In
Starting a company is like entering a tunnel. There is so much for you to do that you have no time to look around, so your world shrinks. You are so busy moving from problem to problem that it gets harder and hard to think about your company objectively. This is why so many founders […]
Backwards, Thinking
Many first time founders set their company goals based on what they can do. They focus on product improvements they can make, how many customers/users they can acquire, and which employees they can hire. All of this thinking is extrapolating from where they are right now to where they think they can get to […]
The Myth of “SaaS”
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has taken the technology world by storm. Nowadays, all new software companies are SaaS, which simply means they are based in the cloud and have subscription pricing. With the exception of mobile applications and e-commerce, almost all new companies are following this model. It is not surprising. The benefits of SaaS over older […]
Performance Reviews That Do Not Suck
I recently completed my end of year personal feedback process. I have long been an advocate of collecting personal feedback because I try to live my life as a process of continuous improvement. How can I improve if I don’t know where I am weak? I find it surprising how few people solicit feedback and how few startups have […]
Selling Your Company
This happens to every founder at some point. You realize building your business is harder than you expected. You have been working for a few years without finding breakaway growth. The team is tired and losing some of their passion, overwhelmed by the work that needs to be done. You need to start a new round of fundraising […]
3 Steps to Become a Renaissance Founder
Are you a founder of a start-up or thinking of starting one? Don’t waste another minute working without reading this first.