Mar 17, 2020Don’t Let COVID-19 Be a Disaster for Your Company, Part 2Impacts on Business Operations and Fundraising As I mentioned in Part 1 of this article, Sequoia Capital recently published an open letter on Medium entitled Coronavirus: The Black Swan of 2020. The letter is well worth reading. A key thought from that letter is this: A distinctive feature of enduring…Evolution Accelerator5 min read
Mar 16, 2020Don’t Let COVID-19 Be a Disaster for Your Company, Part 1Intro and Human Resources Concerns For centuries, in Euro-centric societies, a common expression was used to indicate the opinion that a thought or statement was painfully obvious. “Is a swan white?” was an old-timey version of “Ya think?” Nobody north of the equator had ever seen a swan that deviated…Evolution Accelerator5 min read
Feb 6, 2020Introduction to Investor Types: Don’t go looking for money in all the wrong placesDo you remember, way back in junior high, when your science teacher taught you all about ecological niches? It seems pretty obvious that your chances of finding a big green frog happily living in a sand dune in the middle of the Kalahari desert are just about zero. What might…Investors6 min read
Jan 29, 2020Member-onlyIf you are going to sell shares in your startup, you need a cap table.Yes. You do. A capitalization table is an electronic ledger or spreadsheet that is, on the most simple level, a chart that shows at a glance who owns how much of your company. It therefore shows exactly who has control of your company. The cap table can also allow you…Capitalization Table8 min read
Jan 22, 2020Looking for Investors? First You Need a Fundable Business ModelYour startup is launched, and things are going along pretty darned well. So well, in fact, that you think the time has arrived to start looking for some serious investors. Or, maybe your established business is booming, and you want to diversify. Before you start actively looking for people with…Startup Funding5 min read
Jan 11, 2020Introduction to Startup FundingSo, you decided that it’s time to make that dream come true and do something about the business idea that’s been bumping around in the back of your brain since junior high. You need money to take that idea from the dream stage into reality. …Startups4 min read
Jan 11, 2020Effective Investor CommunicationsEvery entrepreneur dreams of success. To achieve success, sometimes it is necessary to find investors. Sure, you can reach out to your friends and family. They know you, and because they know and trust you, some will feel comfortable investing in your dream. But how do you capture and hold…Startup7 min read