Startups feel like sprints in the beginning, but for any of us who have done this before, we’ve learned that it’s a marathon. We’re judged by our speed when we start — and our endurance when, and if, we finish. When Does “Pacing” Ourselves Start to Matter? Not in the beginning. In the beginning, it’s […]
How Do I Buy Out an Equity Holder Fairly?
Getting equity back from an existing stakeholder isn’t easy — but it is possible. It’s a situation that very few Founders have ever been through before, so no one really knows how to go about it. Let’s talk a bit about how the situation develops and what we can do to get some of that […]
What Problems DO Just Go Away With Time?
I’m neck-deep in startup issues ranging from raising capital to dealing with frustrating employees to trying to chase down customers for payment. Is there some point where this all just sorta goes away and the business starts to run more comfortably?
My Startup Stalled – Now What?
If our startup has stalled, that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on it, it just means we have to figure out where it best fits in our lives.
Do Founders Need to be Good Managers?
Sometimes Founders do grow into great managers — and sometimes they were great managers already. But the real question is: “Do Founders need to be good managers?”
How To Bounce Back From Startup Failure
Startup failure is knowing our friends aren’t asking about our startup because they already know we’ve failed. It’s knowing we’re the punchline of community gossip, sometimes from fellow Founders who might have a right to joke, but mostly from those who don’t. It’s about trading that exciting victory we dreamed about for the nightmare that […]
What’s a Cap Table and Why do I Care?
The cap table is a ledger of who owns stock in our company. If you and I are the only owners of the company, there are exactly two entries in the cap table. Easy peasy. But as the company grows, and we start handing stock out to more people, the accuracy of the cap table […]
The Emotional Cost Of Being A Startup Founder
We don’t do a great job of talking about the most important cost of starting a company – our mental and emotional well-being. Every bit of startup life chips away at our lives as a constant grind. It’s a journey few of us truly appreciate until we are too far into it. It’s time to start having a more open conversation about what it really costs to be a startup Founder.
Will Investors Want to Run My Company?
If I take on investors, will they push me aside and run the company?
Why Should I Avoid Paying People with Equity?
As Founders, we tend to spend equity like it’s free — only to come to learn that equity is not only expensive now, it’s way more expensive later as the company grows. And we now hold less of it.