One Simple Paragraph Every Entrepreneur Should Add to Their Convertible Notes
I’m so tired of seeing young entrepreneurs get screwed by their angel investors on convertible notes and I know I can’t convince you not to do it so I’d like to offer one simple bit of advice to help you avoid getting screwed (at least on one part of your note). When you do a […]
If You’re Going to Do a SaaS Start-Up … You Have to Give it 24 Months
It seems like everyone wants to be a SaaS founder these days. I meet with great VPs of Sales and Product in particular who are Ready. It’s time. To go out on their own. Start their own SaaS company. Awesome. I get it. I’d like to recruit you to be a VP at one of […]
Finding harmony between advice and self-interest
I just wrapped one of those calls where I had the opportunity to give advice to an entrepreneur that runs counter to my short-term interests. In this case, it is a story of a first-time entrepreneur who has built a $7 million revenue business and is wrestling with the decision whether to take growth capital […]
Want Happy Customers? Implement the 5-Visits-Plus-2-Badges Rule. For Your Customer Success Team — And You.
If you are a SaaStr reader, you’ll know how passionate I am about Customer Success. For one simple reason: Second Order Revenue. Upsells. Renewals. Word-of-Mouth. Champion Change. What it all means is that if you do it right, you’ll make 6x or more the revenue from your customers after the sale itself. The details on […]
The Age of the Aging Entrepreneur
I’ve often compared Silicon Valley to “Logan’s Run“–once your Lifeclock hits 30, the system encourages you to “renew”. In the movie, this meant death…in Silicon Valley, it means becoming an angel investor or VC (no comment). After all, this is a place where an investor can say with a straight face, “We love older entrepreneurs! […]
Enterprise startups: Richard Branson’s expansive and practical advice
I talk with many enterprise startups who want advice or a write-up here. Virtually all these entrepreneurs radiate passion and enthusiasm for their product, company, and prospects for success. Unfortunately, too many of these companies do not possess a vision that is simultaneously expansive and intensely practical. With this in mind, I read with great interest […]
Entrepreneurshit. The Blog Post on What It’s Really Like.
It’s 4.50am. Sunday morning. And I couldn’t sleep. I have much on my mind since I just returned from a week on the road. 5 days. 3 cities. Late night Mexican food. Beers. Airports. Delays. I left on a Sunday. I had to miss a full day with my family, camping in the mountains. I […]
Why if You are a VC You Should be Insanely Rich
Ok – First, I know some folks are going to challenge this math, but I think it’s basically correct. Second, being a VC is hard. Not always 100 hours-a-week hard work, but hard to do well. But — investing in someone else’s hard work is obviously far easier than founding and inventing something yourself. With […]
The Farther You Go, The Tougher It Gets
Something many entrepreneurs don’t realize is that the farther you go with your startup, the tougher it gets.When you start with an idea, it’s easy to be excited. Since it only exists in your head, it morphs every day, possibly even with every convers…
Weekend Review: Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson
Just finished reading the Steve Jobs biography by Walter Isaacson and thought I will add few thoughts here. Two words that came out of my mind after finishing the book: Filthy Genius I saw many reviews that talked about possible bias in favor of Jobs but I never spotted the bias. In fact, I started reading the […]
One Surefire Way to Screw up Your Lifestyle Business
Some businesses are designed – maybe even destined – to be owner operated. Industry parlance often refers to these businesses as lifestyle businesses. Wikipedia has a nice definition. They are typically small, profitable, generate cash and enable their owner-operator to sustain a well-above average lifestyle. In some circumstances, they may even make their owner-operator filthy […]
Talk With Everyone
Reading Mark Suster‘s excellent post, “Why You Need To Take 50 Coffee Meetings” brought to mind one of my personal corollaries: Talk with everyone. I’m a relatively small-time investor. It’s a documented fact, and I don’t try to hide it. But that means that I need to deliver value beyond money if I’m going to […]
Startup Mantra: Hire Fast, Fire Fast
I have often said that what separates real entrepreneurs from pundits and bystanders is a bias towards getting things done versus over analyzing things. My credo has always been JFDI. It’s the hardest thing to teach people who come out of big companies, out of conservative jobs. At the big consulting firms, investment banks and […]
Nothing Matters But Traction
Nothing matters but traction. It makes everything easy, but it is the hardest to accomplish.Too many entrepreneurs focus on working around a lack of traction when they would be better off using that energy to get traction.A common occurrence is that an…
What Should You Do with Your Crappy Little Services Business?
There’s a line of thinking in Silicon Valley that you should build product businesses rather than services businesses. This thinking is largely driven by the venture capital industry (and subsequently Wall Street) who are in search of high margin, highly scalable businesses. It’s nearly impossible to get a services company financed by VCs. You’re small fish.
