Over 30 years of business insight in one place.

Asking “Should you take VC?” is like asking “Should you play in the NBA?” The answer is NO. Of course the answer isn’t no for everyone. But both of these options only make sense for very, very, very, few people.…

It’s critical that a company have a mission. Having a mission STATEMENT? Not so much. A mission is the reason that a company exists. It doesn’t have to be worthy of a nobel prize. “We make the best damn pizza…

If you’re an entrepreneur in any incubator or accelerator you've probably got access to a mentor — or several. And there’s the problem. More often than you think, different mentors will give you conflicting advice about what to do. Who’s…

Why? The first question (always - about almost anything) to ask is why do it at all? Presumably you'll enjoy a vacation for personal reasons. Your business should be in service to your life, not the other way round. But…

File under: Software I Can NOT Live Without. How much time have you wasted looking for files on your PC? If it’s more than a minute, stop what you’re doing and go to http://www.voidtools.com/ and get a copy of the…

They tell the story of two young fish who were swimming up the stream one morning when an old fish came swimming by. “Good morning fellas,” said the old fish, “How’s the water?” and he swam off. One of the…

. The Capability Maturity Model was developed to rate the maturity of a process for software development. It was funded by the US Department of Defense and written by Carnegie Mellon University in the early 1990s. I've adapted it to…

Most entrepreneurs only know one way to spend money. But there are two. And using the wrong one can get you into trouble. Before I tell you about them, you should think of why you spend money in a business.…

In my experience, there are 3 reasons why small firms stop growing. I’m talking about companies with up to 100 employees or so. I don’t know about larger companies, I suspect at that scale the dynamics are different. . Reason…

A friend asked how to split equity with a technical person she’s bringing on in her startup. Here are some thoughts in no particular order. Coincidentally, Steve Blank published a great article that’s relevant. http://steveblank.com/2013/07/29/building-great-founding-teams/. Are you considering equity because…