Entrepreneurship Tips

  Of course. Agree on a price (the hardest part) Write a check and both sign a transfer agreement to put in the company’s board of Director minutes Change the company cap table and ownership name Of course, this is not always easy, as usually the departing founder wants way more than the shares are worth today. The more common scenario is when the other founder leaves (early, before the company has any profits or revenue often) the company issues more shares that dilute down the old founder because they should have never vested it all and the founding agreements...

  And beat the odds that only 1 in 6,300 will reach this level of annual sales. The attached diagram shows the skills, systems and experience needed on that team. Each cell would take at least 5 years’ experience to acquire and master that skill area. So, we are looking at 100 years of experience cumulative for the company as a whole. Most people think they are “ready to scale” as soon as they have some sales. This is never true. In fact, you need at least 4 levels of stuff in 5 business areas, or your odds of success...

I'm reposting this image because it is great stuff. We "buy on emotion", more than logic, and remember by stories. Ten million years of evolution created our human ability to remember PERSONALITIES. Good versus bad.    A brand is just a company personified. And a story is a collection of personalities made memorable.But to truly be successful and grow, or scale at 50%+ CAGR, you also need strong innovation and protect ability.As The Father of Management said: "A company has two jobs. Innovation and marketing". Only those that do both well will scale to $100M+ which only 1 in 6,300...

  I find that pitch decks to investors fail to articulate how they will maintain a market lead and build barriers to entry around their business over time, as more competitors emerge. We teach 17 ways to increase SCA at The CEO Boot Camp and in our scaling consulting work. I would recommend adding two additional slides to the standard 10-12 most have in their decks. This will impress investors far more than some fancy graphics or massive TAM market claims. Slides to add: Sustainable Competitive Advantage (SCA) - How will you evolve your barriers to entry over time. The...

  A good question, and one most professionals get wrong. Even professional recruiters. Although this can depend on many factors, generally speaking the CEO does not need to come from the industry.  The existing employees and team should bring the industry and domain expertise. If it is a raw startup with no staff, that is really a co-founder, not a “CEO hire”. And no good CEO is going to work for a founder that has little experience. Most experienced CEOs do not want to take raw startup risk, they come in later when the risk is fleshed out and scaling...