No matter if you have a million dollars or a billion dollars to burn, it’s confidence, not capital, that should be the currency of acceleration at a startup.
Everyone generally agrees that dilution should be avoided. VCs insist on pro-rata rights to avoid the dreaded “D” word. Executives often complain, after a new financing, that they should be “mad
Eric Paley Contributor Eric Paley is a managing partner at Founder Collective. More posts by this contributor Confidence: The currency of acceleration When venture capital becomes vanity capital I’v
Failure doesn’t usually happen “to” startups. It happens when founders rationalize problems until it’s too late. Attack problems early and the startup will advance. Rationalize that the proble
Most team leaders will agree on the majority of decisions that need to be made and good startup teams seem telepathic at times, but there are inevitably going to be profound disagreements. It’s crit
Venture capital should come with a warning label. In our experience, VC kills more startups than slow customer adoption, technical debt and co-founder infighting -- combined. VC should be a catalyst f
The era of unicorn startups has created a distorted view of entrepreneurial success. All the talk about billion-dollar exits has inflated the numbers that define a win. Starting and selling a company
Eric Paley Contributor Eric Paley is a managing partner at Founder Collective. More posts by this contributor Confidence: The currency of acceleration When venture capital becomes vanity capital Josep
Cheap and accessible capital has advantages: More founders get to pursue big dreams and previously “unfundable companies” not only raise huge amounts of money, but some achieve unicorn status. Dis
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy committed before a joint session of Congress that before the end of the decade America would put a man on the moon. This was not an empty political promise to get el
Many business critics of Uber contend that the company is spending “unsustainably.” Despite that nearly all venture-backed startups burn capital unsustainably, Uber’s level of spending is viewe
I often hear VCs say that they don’t back products, they back platforms. I find that logic backwards and in many ways dangerous for founders. Platforms can provide a durable competitive advantage, a
Starting a company is like attempting to bend the world to your will. There are obstacles at every turn, and it’s never easy. Fundraising is one of those huge obstructions. Not only is the process o
Nearly all startups use the same methodology to figure out when to raise their next round of capital. The founder projects the planned burn rate and estimates the day they will run out of cash. Then t
When seed capital hits the books, the outlook of every startup is one of unbridled optimism. Founders, team members, and investors are inspired by a singular vision and believe it can materialize int
Conventional wisdom is that startups are bought, not sold. The logic follows that no matter how much an entrepreneur wants to sell a company, there needs to be an eager buyer and no amount of seller d
Every dollar the founders take out of the company sets the tone for the entire business going forward. Every dollar spent is a dollar of dilution, as it costs equity. Every unnecessary dollar spent on