Entrepreneur Corner

Finding a buyer for your start-up

(Editor’s note: John Ovrom founder and CEO of Exit and Answers, a social community for entrepreneurs looking to sell their company. The story originally appeared on his blog.)

Entrepreneurs tend to look for one of two types of buyers when they decide to sell their business. Some search for the perfect match as defined by their personal exit goals. Others simply go after the highest sales price.

Obviously the dream is to find both – someone who will protect… Continue Reading

5 ways VC firms can stop shooting themselves in the foot

(Editor’s note: Laura Grimmer is CEO of Articulate Communications Inc., a B2B technology and services communications firm. She submitted this story to VentureBeat.)

Over the past 20 years, I have worked with countless VC firms to promote their portfolio companies. However, it never fails to amaze me how ignorant those VC firms are about what marketing actually does.

Very few VCs invest either the time or resources to create basic credibility or market visibility for themselves. However, there… Continue Reading

What boards of directors can learn from the Supreme Court

(Editor’s note: Brad Feld is an early stage investor and co-founder of Foundry Group. This post originally appeared on his blog.)

I had an incredible experience this week.  My friend Phil Weiser, who is now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General at the US Department of Justice, Antitrust Division (I prefer to call him America’s Top Cop on Agriculture) invited me, my partner Jason Mendelson, and my wife Amy Batchelor to attend the Supreme Court Oral Arguments for re Bilski.

For those that know about… Continue Reading

Excel where your competitors suck

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. A version of this column originally appeared on his blog.)

Customers have a natural affinity to stay with their current vendors. It is, after all, far less trouble. Most of the time, when someone moves their business, it isn’t because the competitor has that much better of a product or service, it’s because their existing vendor ticked them off in some way that a competitor… Continue Reading

Lean startups aren’t cheap startups

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)

At an entrepreneurs panel last week questions from the audience made me realize that the phrase “Lean Startup” was being confused with “Cheap Startup.”

For those of you who have been following the discussion, a Lean Startup is Eric Ries’s description of the intersection of Customer Development, Agile Development and (if available) open platforms and open source.

A Lean Startup… Continue Reading

Shoestring marketing for start-ups

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Scott Olson is president of MindLink Marketing. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)

In a startup, there is no more precious commodity than capital. It’s hard to come by and easily burned – and marketing budgets can quickly become one of the biggest line items.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though.

There are more cost effective and free marketing tools than ever, letting companies get a lot more marketing bang for their… Continue Reading

Do you have what it takes to be a founder?

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)

When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves the following series of questions:

Are you comfortable with chaos? (Startups are disorganized)
Are you comfortable with uncertainty? (Startups never go per plan)
Are you… Continue Reading

Get out of my company!

(Editor’s note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This column originally appeared on his blog.)

Some of the most important business lessons are learned in the most unlikely ways. At Ardent I learned many of them with a sharp smack on the side of the head from a brilliant, but abusive, boss. Not a process I recommend, but one in which the lessons stuck for a lifetime.

Ardent was my… Continue Reading

5 tips for choosing a co-founder

(Editor’s note: Mike McDerment is the co-founder and CEO of FreshBooks, an online invoicing and bookkeeping app. This story originally appeared on the company’s blog.)

They say choosing your partner is the most important decision you will make in life. I’d say choosing your co-founder(s) is the most important decision you will make in building your company. Here are five tips to help you choose wisely:

Demand Passion – Starting a company is lonely, thankless and costly. It… Continue Reading

Trust your team, not the crowds, when it comes to risk

(Editor’s note: Josh Green is CEO of Panjiva, which helps companies find overseas suppliers. He contributed this column to VentureBeat.)

Over the last decade, many businesses came to believe the “wisdom of crowds” could be harnessed to predict the future. The idea went something like this: By aggregating opinions from a wide variety of people, you could get insight an individual couldn’t provide.

It worked, to a degree. But, as you may have gathered from the ongoing… Continue Reading