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- The four “P’s” to help you build a great business
- Here’s how NOT to define your competition
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- Think ahead when raising your early investments
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Category Archives: Surrounding yourself with talent
How about your board members’ time commitments?
Expect a board member to give a meeting a month, emails and phone calls between. Urgent issues require more of all. Board members are usually busy people, often running other companies or serving on multiple boards. Early stage boards usually … Continue reading
How do you pay an early stage board?
Give one percent equity to each outside board member vesting over four years of service. Many early stage CEOs and board members have asked for some guidance regarding pay and time commitments for board members. Here is my best advice, … Continue reading
Please learn this: “Noses in; fingers out!”
Many of us have someone who reports directly to us and who supervises others in return. If that fits, well then, this one is for you. And it is one of the most important lessons you can learn as a … Continue reading
Hire a consultant; ignore the advice.
At one time or another, most all businesses use consultants to fill the gaps in knowledge or to provide guidance for management. Consultants are good in that you can sample their work with short projects, change to other consultants quickly, … Continue reading
Bankers: love ’em or hate ’em. They may affect your future.
Let’s get right down to it. Your banking relationship can be like a great marriage or a bad trip to the DMV. In most cases it is strictly your choice. But the results of that choice will reverberate for what … Continue reading
Take only “smart money” investments
This statement could be considered controversial. We have previously made the case that professional investors demand more in the form of restrictive covenants and lower valuations. Now we explore the other side of that coin. Professional investors usually bring “smart … Continue reading
Accounting: What kind of bean counter do you need?
Accountants are trained, certified and usually quite experienced in financial analysis, both creating and reviewing data. Bookkeepers are often trained on the job although sometimes more formally and handle the physical work of accounting for the transactions. To expect a … Continue reading
What’s a company board good for, anyway?
Some of you have gotten along forever without a board of directors, or used your spouse as the “other” board member from the start. But there are some very good reasons to build a great board composed of some outside … Continue reading
Posted in Growth!, Surrounding yourself with talent
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How well do you use your business time?
Forming business relationships at the highest level As you follow these insights from ignition to liquidity event, you’ll detect a continuing theme, emphasizing the need for deep and wide relationships that the CEO and senior staff can call upon for … Continue reading
Several more real costs of taking outsider investments.
Let’s talk about the reality of taking money from professional investors. It is not the first time we’ve covered this general subject nor the last. But this time, we concentrate upon governance changes. Once a company founder has tapped the … Continue reading
