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by Steven Loeb - February 19, 2013
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Featured Lessons learned

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Shoot for capturing the world

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, July 31, 2008 | Comments

VCs don't want to hear what you can do, they want to stretch you

Entrepreneurs shouldn't think conservatively about goals because it may only serve to make them lazy. Moreover, they'll fail to realize their abilities. This is a lesson we've heard from entrepreneurs and one underscored in this "Lessons learned" segment with Keith McCurdy, CEO and founder of Vivaty, a 3D platform backed by Kleiner Perkins and Mohr Davidow - to invest $9.2 ...

Lessons Learned: KickStart CEO Martin Fisher

by John Shinal, July 24, 2008 | Comments

Non-profit faces challenges similar to those of startups; need to "prove impacts"

Martin Fisher, founder and CEO of KickStart, has learned a few things after 17 years of helping rural Africans lift themselves out of poverty."People all over the world are not so different -- they all want a better life for themselves and their families," says Fisher, whose efforts have helped 65,000 families earn a better living.While his firm is a ...

Constraints and the 70's punk movement

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, July 22, 2008 | Comments (1)

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey shares his lessons and advice

For someone whose service drives millions to communicate in 140-characters, it's probably not a surprise that limitations are a good thing. "It's important to constrain the process," said Twitter CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey, in this interview in which he shares his lessons as an entrepreneur. "In my dispatch days back in 1999,2000 we built something cool. We loved it. ...

The Entrepreneur Commons - take 2

by Marc Dangeard, July 22, 2008 | Comments (1)

	Exploring a new model for seed funding After looking at VCs, and after managing the European American Angel Club for two years now, I have come to the conclusion that entrepreneurs are not really being served properly when it comes to seed funding. And I would like therefore to propose the concept of an Entrepreneur Commons to help with the issue.I have seen are roughly three types ...
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Never ever, ever, ever give up

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, July 22, 2008 | Comments (1)

It is brightest right after the point when it's darkest

Wolfgang's Vault founder and CEO William Sagan shares his lessons with Vator. Wolfgang's Vault has collected a library of live music performances. The site hosts more than 1,000 live concerts spanning more than 30 years of performances. One lesson William shares is to keep smart people around. "Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you," he said. We've heard ...

The anatomy of angel networks

by David Saad, July 20, 2008 | Comments (1)

Herding is critical to angel funding

(Note: This was republished to highlight due to its popularity)There are four main sources of funding including: Angels like relatives, friends, colleagues, customers, partners, or vendors. Angel networks like North Bay Angels, Sand Hill Angels, Pasadena Angels, etc. The focus of this article is on angel networks. Funds like venture capital firms and pension funds. Markets like NYSE, NASDAQ, TSE, ...

The psychology of hiring great people

by Tom Patterson, July 19, 2008 | Comments

'A talent' is attracted to 'A talent'

I think at the highest level everybody looks for three things when trying to employ talent to their companies. People typically look for people who are: Intelligent Motivated Highly Functional in a Group Environment Startups have their advantages and disadvantages when trying to entice talented people to come work for them. Young organizations can provide intense challenges, more accountability, and ...

The art of rejection

by David Saad, July 19, 2008 | Comments (1)

	Just say "No" quickly and nicely In response to John Shinal's article entitled A VC on saying "no" and the "courtesy-proof" firm, I thought it might be helpful to, not expose, but re-expose some VCs to the art of rejection - assuming of course that any VC would have mastered it upon initiation, but could have forgotten it due to all the commotion caused by entrepreneurs. ...
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Success is a terrible teacher

by Don Dodge, July 19, 2008 | Comments (4)

The 7 deadly sins and 10 lessons of a failed startup

Failure is part of the maturing process in the startup world. If you haven't failed, you aren't trying hard enough, or you aren't "pushing the envelope" far enough. I have always said "Success is a terrible teacher. Success masks over flaws that may hurt you later." Roger Ehrenberg - the co-founder of Monitor 110, wrote a story on the lessons ...

The Entrepreneur Commons

by Marc Dangeard, July 18, 2008 | Comments

	Exploring a new way to fund startups After looking at VCs, and after managing the European American Angel Club for two years now, I have come to the conclusion that entrepreneurs are not really being served properly when it comes to seed funding. And I would like therefore to propose the concept of an Entrepreneur Commons to help with the issue.I have seen are roughly three types ...
	Read more »

Leveraging chip designing to make wine

by John Shinal, July 18, 2008 | Comments

And, how a blogger saved this company's business

Greg Snell, CEO of Provina, had been designing chips for 15 years. One day, he decided to parlay his chip-designing skills into a product that created wine. Greg was reading about "specifications on what a customer was looking for for a chip plant," he said, realizing that the "PH density and acid" specifications were very similar to wine specifications. Then ...

Be flexible - what you expected will change

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, July 18, 2008 | Comments (1)

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Startups need people who work beyond 9 to 5, and who can change their expectations on a dime

Visible Technologies CEO Adam Selig grew his online reputation monitoring company from a 7-person team to one that is over 50-people strong. To this end, it's good to hear his thoughts on how to manage and build a team. The first piece of advice he had to entrepreneurs is to be "flexible" because the expectations of what they're in for ...

Fark founder Drew Curtis says, 'Don't quit'

by Bambi Francisco Roizen, July 18, 2008 | Comments

	Advice for new, digital media startups Drew Curtis founded Fark.com in 1999 and has grown the property to 60-plus million pageviews, basically on his own. His site - a social media site for odd, satirical news, or not news - has largely been driven by millions of contributors seeking to participate in his community. In this "Lessons learned" video, Drew says not to quit - something ...
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