Lessons Learned: TheFunded's Adeo Ressi on knowing the rules of the game

How not knowing the rules led to the creation of TheFunded; failure is part of entrepreneurship

Adeo Ressi founded TheFunded.com after almost getting fired by a board of directors that he helped put together, from a company in which he was one of the largest shareholders.

That experience taught him that he "didn't understand the rules of the game" for dealing with venture capitalists.

The particular rule in question is "when the company stumbles, fire the CEO," says Ressi, who has been at seven startups in a 15-year entrepreneurial career.

His goal for TheFunded.com, which allow entrepreneurs to rate VC firms and partners, is to fix the relationship between those two groups, which until now has been "broken."

Another lesson from Ressi is to "start scrappy." It's easier to scale up than to scale back down.

And finally, one lesson that definitely only comes from experience, "failure and entrepreneurship go hand in hand."