Let’s Get Something Straight, ALL Entrepreneurs are Bootstrapping
Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Do Venture Backed Entrepreneurs look down upon Bootstrapped Entrepreneurs? Asked of me, on Quora, and I thought, WTF?! Let’s get something clear because such distinctions are misleading, inaccurate, and aggravating. ALL entrepreneurs are bootstrapped entrepreneurs. Every single one. The only people who start out with funding are privileged and more rare than Unicorns. They aren’t
- Published in Startups
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On the Challenges Facing an Angel Investor
Wednesday, 14 November 2018
Angel investment is a distinct *source* of capital that it’s important to distinguish from “seed money,” funding from angel groups, venture capital, money from an incubator, or even an early investment from someone with later stage expectations. In my time in Silicon Valley, with New York, and in Texas, what is glaringly obvious is that
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Getting to Know Your Venture Capitalist
Tuesday, 28 August 2018
There are two types of people in the world. Those who know what they’re doing and those who don’t. Your challenge, as an entrepreneur raising capital, is to discern the difference. Even with the very best of intentions, wealth doesn’t necessarily = experience, good advice, and sound decisions. In venture capital this fact can lead to disastrous
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Venture Capital in Texas
Thursday, 26 July 2018
The last time I had an opportunity to do this at such a scale was during Amazon’s Startup Day. What is the state of the Texas venture capital ecosystem? Interestingly, personally, since speaking for Amazon, Austin has been hemming and hawing about HQ2 and while the merit of that happening or not, is fodder for
- Published in Startups, Insights / Research
The VCs I Read
Wednesday, 04 July 2018
Last thought first: How do we follow all of these great mentors and writers? Here’s a Twitter List to Follow <- Subscribe there and you’ll get all of their posts I’ve spent years, week after week, dropping to entrepreneurs some of the names of VC blogs and bloggers I love. In every Incubator and session I
- Published in Insights / Research, Startups
Accessibility > Inclusion > Diversity > Change > Innovation > Wealth Creation
Monday, 30 April 2018
Many who follow me here or on Quora know that I’m a student of economist Peter Drucker. It’s Drucker who noted of the economy and business, that only two things create value: marketing and innovation – that everything else done is a cost of existing; that marketing and innovation create wealth, they create value while
- Published in Insights / Research
How to Start Your Startup – Whether You Need Code or Capital, Start Here.
Monday, 05 March 2018
By FAR, the greatest mistake that startup founders make is that they start with the wrong things. They tend to have an assumption or desire about how to solve a problem and they go. You read that “startup” book that tells all you need to know… you went to a meetup or networking event that
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