founder advice

A vanishingly small number of investors will look at any pitch. For most investors, though, you'll need to get your foot in the door to be heard.

This first part of a three-part series explores understanding the investment thesis you fit into and identifying the right investors for your startup.

Lisa Feria remains bullish on the plant-based foods sector despite headwinds. Here's what she’s telling her portfolio companies in these uncertain times.

For many startup founders, a "founder-friendly" investor is one who stays relatively hands off. But in today's climate, we need the opposite.

Climate tech investor Dan Goldman details what he thinks about today’s market and what he’s telling his portfolio companies about how to prepare for next year.

The crew here at TechCrunch has done a lot of writing about making amazing pitch decks over the years, and I figured it was time that I put together a collection of all of it in one handy spot. A lot

I’ve run a startup or two in my time, and I’ve run companies that have struggled to meet payroll from time to time. More than once, running a limited-time sale with a discount saved the co

Even with the rampant enthusiasm for pouring bigger equity checks into startups, founders are now in a unique place in time where they can think differently about how to capitalize their companies.

As someone with "founder" on your resume, you face a greater challenge when trying to get a salaried job. You’ve already shown that you really want to lead a company and not just rise up the ladder.

“Most of the startups I give advice to about how to raise venture capital shouldn’t be raising venture capital,” an investor recently told me. While the idea that every startup isn’t venture-b

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

When should you trust a venture capitalist, and when should you prepare for battle?

For startup CEOs, tough economic periods are like stressful stretches in a marriage: They test your mettle while making ugly truths impossible to hide. These days, amid industry-wide belt-tightening,

Like most VCs, we see dozens of deals each week. We've developed a funnel that enables us to quickly eliminate those that don't fit our general investment criteria. The deals that survive this initial

I was born an engineer and an introvert. The rest is pretty predictable. When I was three I obsessed over jigsaw puzzles. At five, LEGO. I showed whatever I built to my mom, and she gave me a stream o