entrepreneurs

According to Professor Sean Wise, who claims to have worked with more than 15,000 entrepreneurs, no matter how great the idea and the opportunity, in the end it is only the execution that creates change and generates wealth.[read more]

When you think about the people in the world who are highly successful, making money beyond their wildest dreams, and hear their success stories, do you wonder what it was that brought them success? Were they just lucky, or superbly talented, or did they just have a product that was seriously needed in the marketplace?[read more]

Learn to fail gracefully by learning to fall gracefully.[read more]

Isaak Karaev stopped by and left a comment in yesterday's thread. Isaak is one of the first entrepreneurs I backed in my career. I got involved in his company Multex in the early 90s, almost twenty years ago now. I backed him again more recently. It was the first investment we made at Union Square Ventures and we sold that company a few years ago.[read more]

In two previous columns, we began looking at the "three-legged-stool" -- that is, whom small businesses need as supporting advisers. The first two legs were a business-minded attorney and a CPA. The final leg of the stool is a business banker. Because bankers are generally not able to lend money until businesses are well established,...[read more]

I don’t have the time or interest to look at the latest in the Winkelvoss and Ceglia vs Facebook/Zuckerberg sagas.  But even just the headlines serve as good reminders that as an entrepreneur you need to know some things about IP law so that you don’t run afoul of it.  In particular, I continue to meet people starting...[read more]

Passion is what drives entrepreneurs.  Passion is often what pushes us to take the risk to launch our venture.  Passion is also what keeps us going when we face the many hurdles and roadblocks that are inherent in almost every entrepreneurial endeavor.  Passion is what helps us break into the market and convince a...[read more]

> I’m a bit embarrassed about this story. It’s about lying. You’ll see if you read on that it wasn’t bad lying, not tricking anybody for any bad reason. But it’s a true story, so I’m posting it here because 1.) it might be useful to somebody; and 2.) I’m curious about how often it happens. Did you ever see the television commercial...[read more]

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble.” – Macbeth Every time I hear the word “bubble” I think of that quote from Macbeth. I also think of Tulip Mania and the South Sea Company which purportedly was the source of the concept of an economic bubble. And then I remember Charles Mackay’s classic book “...[read more]

A few years ago we received a seed gift from a donor who has now become our major benefactor for the Center for Entrepreneurship here at Belmont.[read more]

Today at the excellent SydStart event is the official launch of Pushstart, adding to the increasingly rich network of support available to tech start-ups in Australia. There are two key elements to Pushstart: a mentor matching service, bringing together a pool of currently over 50 mentors with start-ups through the year, and a Start-Up...[read more]

  Steve Blank, author of the acclaimed “Four Steps to the Epiphany” has learned more than most entrepreneurs about the secrets to engineering a satisfactory valuation and exit. And he’s identified how those routes to liquidity have changed over time. Now he’s suggesting (and he’s not alone) that we may be entering a New Internet...[read more]

We've backed a lot of serial entrepreneurs over the years. It is one of our favorite things to do. About half of our current portfolio is led by serial entrepreneurs who are working on their second, third, or fourth startup.One hard choice an entrepreneur faces is whether to put the band back together.On one hand, you want to bring some...[read more]

Rapper will.i.am and Ron Conway | Image: Maria J. Avila Lopez, Mercury News Ron Conway is the Robert Pattinson of angel investors. Hell, if Conway had a gig on Twilight he’d turn all the bad vampires into good ones! So how did the angel investor who endowed Google and PayPal become so very successful? Conway is often referred to as the...[read more]

It happens way too often: entrepreneurs proud of some huge completely unattainable market numbers. They show us billions of dollars. They think that’s a good think, like it’s important. And I hate it. As an investor, as a business plan contest judge, or as a teacher, I don’t really care how many billions of dollars are spent on this or...[read more]

According to Innovators Forum guest blogger  Bob Goedjen It's not unusual to realize that as a solo-preneur you've reached the end of your expertise and that you need to bring someone else into your business.  Even if you have employees, there are times when a partner can share the load. But how do you find a partner, vet a...[read more]

 This is the first post of a 2 part series on the “Can-Do Attitude.” After reading Una Coleman’s recent post about the differences between British and American business styles and having a conversation with  the lads from  Bloggertone on Facebook, it became really apparent that a lot of my business philosophy ...[read more]

The flip-side of the typical ‘year-in-review’ posts that always surface across the blogosphere in December, comes the ‘new year predictions’ lists that accompany them. While most of them cover similar ground — things like the importance of mobile technologies, the increased emphasis on green and local, and the mainstreaming of social...[read more]

One of the questions facing venture capitalists in the internet/web sector is how big a portfolio is optimal. The economics of internet/web startups means the capital requirements for each investment are often lower and the best ones get profitable on one or two rounds of investment. That leads many venture capital firms participating in...[read more]

On January 1, 2004 I officially made the leap from Cubicle Land (that’s not actually my old desk in the picture) in corporate America and started my own company. These last six years have been pretty typical of someone who sets out on their own – full of highs and lows, challenges and rewards. Every day is unique. I wouldn’t trade it...[read more]