You spend enough time with enough startups and you genuinely come to appreciate the importance of The Hustler. The Hustler plays a few levels above where he* should, but gets away with it because of sheer willpower, ego and perceptivity. Tweet The Hustler learns the rules quickly — breaks those he needs to — and […]
How to Have Startup Swagger Without Being a Complete Asshole
You need a sizeable ego to succeed in the world of startups and venture capital. Without that ego propelling you forward it’s going to be hard to wake up every morning, take the risks you need to take, and aggressively go after what you want. You won’t be able to negotiate from a position of […]
You Have to Jump First
Startups are founded by people that make the leap before anyone else. If you don’t leap first, you don’t stand a chance of winning. Jump. It’s up to you. No one else can jump for you or before you. If you’re waiting for some form of validation from existing co-workers, family or even worse, investors, […]
The Death of the Business Founder
The commonly accepted structure for startup teams is one business founder and one technical founder. Theoretically it makes sense: one guy builds the product and the other sells it. But it’s not that simple. Some time ago I wrote that founders can’t live in silos. If the business guy doesn’t get the tech side and […]
10 Frequently Asked Questions about Startups and Why You Should Give a Damn
That was the title of the presentation I gave last night at PHP Quebec. Overall feedback was positive. My goal for the presentation was to convince at least 1 person to start a company. I didn’t ask the audience after if I had accomplished my goal, but I think I moved the needle … at […]
Beware of Too Much Tinkering
More and more people these days are technology tinkerers. They’re messing around, trying new things, jumping from small project to small project, but never settling on and committing to one thing. It’s certainly easier and easier to tinker, which is great; it makes building stuff more accessible and less expensive. And that can lead to […]
Founder DNA – How Investors Evaluate Startup Founders
Are entrepreneurs born or taught? I’d say a bit of both. Environmental and genetic influences are so intertwined for most things (diseases, our health, intelligence, etc.) there’s no simple answer. Having said that, when we talk about founders and startups we often think of it as something intrinsic to the people, something inside them, built […]
Paying Yourself is Not a Reason to Raise Early Stage Funding
If you want to earn a market value salary, you need to get a job. Paying yourself isn’t a good enough reason to justify raising early stage funding. I realize that sounds harsh, but it’s not intended to be. Here’s a fairly common scenario for startup founders: Two or three people decide to start a […]
The Importance of Domain Knowledge for Startup Founders
When I launched Standout Jobs I didn’t know much about the HR / recruitment industry. I could clearly identify problems in the space, and I was passionate about fixing some of those problems, but I lacked a real appreciation for the industry itself. This led to numerous challenges, and without a doubt had a negative […]
How to Balance Passion and Reality in Startups
Startup founders need inordinate amounts of passion to succeed. Passion is the self-created drug that inspires startup founders to press on during tough times. Since the startup roller coaster goes from incredible highs to suicidal lows in a matter of moments, it’s important to leverage passion as a driving force. But when is there too […]
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