Relatives and friends will often give you money for your new business — whether a loan, investment, or even a gift — for a variety of motivations from belief, to support, to responsibility, to guilt, and more. …

Sorry to break the news, but most people can’t start a company that succeeds. Just like most people can’t play in the French Open or on the Lakers or perform at the Olympics. It’s just that in sport the physical limitations are more immediately obvious. Mainstream media would lead you…

Did you watch the Tiger Woods documentary? Tiger (2021): Official Trailer | HBO — YouTube Do you day-dream about effortlessly shape-shifting into the person or company that you enviously want to be, but are not today? Michael Jordan, Sequoia, Usain Bolt, Adele, SnowFlake, Jay Z, Brian Chesky, a Kardashian…

Ah, your incredible new product. Built to address unmet needs in a huge market. Alas, the sad news: It will never be perfect, NEVER! You will always have an image in your mind of what it should look like — an image that is some…

The CEO/founder has run a small and profitable business for years. She has now decided to take VC funding to scale her business. But the pivotal question for both founder and investor is: Can a leopard change its spots? Imagine this: a founder/CEO has, over a number of years…

The fundamentals of leadership — integrity, ability to delegate, learning agility, influence, decision making, etc — have probably not changed all that much in modern times. …

For founders out there who might be living this… Entrepreneurship can be all consuming, especially at the earliest stages when start-up life is defined by maximizing the limited resources you have. As you work on your business day after day, week after week… then month after month, slowly you can…

We’ve all heard of transformative new hires that change the trajectory of a business. Company leadership, thrilled at their good fortune, almost always laments not hiring that person sooner. So why didn’t they? Let’s examine the most popular reasons (or excuses) for delaying…

Elephant hunting — perhaps you should think twice? With business-to-business (B2B) startups, there is almost nothing more exciting (or seductive) than hunting and bagging an elephant-sized customer. It can produce huge revenue growth, fast. It can provide you with highly leverageable customer names and references. It will excite investors. And…