A few days ago, a friend who works at a growing startup emailed me with the following question (in which I’ve masked just a few of the identifying details): I caught up with a friend of mine from high school that has started a new company where my skills are very pertinent. He wants a [...]

After completing a long process identifying the right venture firms to pitch, running an exhaustive fundraising process, finding a mutual fit, and successfully negotiating terms… at last, the term sheet is signed. So at this point it’s OK to just hand the process over to your lawyers, sit back, and let them work out the [...]

Like a lot of students, I went into business school a decade ago with a set plan to start a company coming straight after graduation in co-founding an internet startup (… again). During the following two years I did a number of things which prepared me for that endeavor, but then also in retrospect, I [...]

You’ve just closed your seed round.  Other than starting to build, hire, and take over the world, there are a bunch of mundane things to do right away.  The following is a first pass at a checklist of items for Founder CEOs to take care of in the first couple weeks after they’ve closed their [...]

I’ve always wondered why funding begins with fun.  Those three letters.  F.  U.  N.  Fun.   For entrepreneurs, seeking seed capital means meeting with numerous VC firms and sometimes dozens of angels… fun?  Telling the same pitch over and over again…  taking time away from more immediately impactful endeavors like recruiting and customer development…  the endless [...]