Real Founder Lessons
The best startup advice from experienced founders...one real-world lesson at a time.
What's your earned secret?
(at minute 8:07)
Founder Lesson
Talk with a dozen successful founders and you'll hear a few very common themes of general startup advice...
Team. Nothing matters more than great people. The hugely successful Techstars accelerator values team so much that they say that the five things they care about (in order) are "team, team, team, . . .
Share your idea with lots of people
(at minute 15:43)
Founder Lesson
A few weeks ago a first-time founder emailed me to meet-up. One of my favorite things is meeting new founders, so I'm always excited to get emails like that. However my enthusiasm quickly declined when I read this at the end of his email...
"Please see the attached mutual NDA and let me know if you have . . .
Good ideas have to look terrible
(at minute 11:35)
Founder Lesson
Someone from a large company was asking me recently how I evaluated new startup ideas. They asked in a way that made me think of Shark Tank. I suspect that he expected me to say something like "I look for a strong technology patent" or "there has to be a big vision for a big market."
How I think . . .
Thank you David Cummings
Founder Lesson
On Saturday morning I was going through email and noticed the latest blog post from David Cummings...
Like many founders in Atlanta, I read almost every post from David. Besides finding personal nuggets that I've been able to use over the years, I've lost track of the number of founders who have . . .
Startups are mashups
(at minute 0:59)
Founder Lesson
If you are a regular reader of my blog then you know that I frequently talk about “knowing your space (and adjacent spaces) cold,” so that you can increase your odds of finding a 10x better product. In other words, learn as much as you can from other efforts around the country. This is particularly important in towns (like . . .
Test investor reactions before running a full process
(at minute 33:33)
Founder Lesson
Once founders have a good handle on their startup, the topic of raising money is never too far behind. Because raising capital takes so much time & energy I’m always looking for lessons to help me think about this topic.
This podcast captured my attention because the founders detailed a step-by-step process . . .
My 50th blog post
Founder Lesson
Last summer I decided that I would try my hand at blogging. A few things had come together in my startup journey, so with this first post I was in business.
Almost a year (and a few hundred readers) later and I’m still really enjoying it. Each writing session allows me to organize my thoughts about an important . . .
