Should I offer cash or equity to a startup advisor? Cash whenever possible, and equity only if you truly must. As a general principle, offer cash/commission to people helping you close a one-off deal (like raising a round) and only offer advisory equity to people you’re confident are going to be ongoing advisors to the… Read more »
I hear this a lot from founders: “I don’t need to do more customer research because I’m focused on solving the problem I experienced myself. I AM the customer!” Except you’re not, not any more. You haven’t been the customer since the time you first started thinking about solving this problem for others as a… Read more »
There’s a time (usually in the future) and a place (bigger markets first) to register patents, but if you’re still getting used to fielding questions from VCs, this is probably not the time and place. So why does it still get asked? Not sure but I think it’s a legacy from days when VC would… Read more »
The main way tech startups grow is through creating technology that solves valuable problems for their customers but another way they grow is through cutting smart deals with other companies. The first few deals I negotiated were content licensing deals, first for Microsoft’s online efforts and then for Yahoo, back in the mid-to-late 1990s. Since… Read more »
Sometimes when you present the opportunity as “we just need you to build what we specify” you’re taking away the biggest motivation there is. If you’ve been working in startups for a while, you’ll be familiar with this kind of request: Seeking: Technical Cofounder I am looking for someone to join us as a technical… Read more »
At an accelerator demo day, nobody comes planning to invest in all the startups in the cohort. The goals are to sort the wheat from the chaff, and to consider whether to begin a dialogue with the best of the startups pitching. What if you don’t believe you’re the best in your cohort on the… Read more »
I like participating in outdoor endurance and adventure events for many reasons, not the least because they often involve solving problems and taking calculated risks based on partial information in a small team of high-achieving people who aren’t getting enough rest. It’s no coincidence that “…solving problems and taking calculated risks based on partial information… Read more »
Once you’ve raised capital, don’t manage the business as if you’ll never be able to raise again. You need momentum. I remember disagreeing with a startup founder when he said: “I wish I’d allowed for the possibility that we might not be able to raise another round and managed the business as if we’d have… Read more »
It’s probably not the One True Rule Of Success but it’s got to be in the Top 10: never agree to have a chat with someone you don’t know until they’ve told you what they hope to get out of it. Earlier in my career, it was me doing all the network heavy-lifting, asking other… Read more »
The earlier you are; The fewer your customers; The further you are from your revenue goal; and The bigger the customer; The more likely you are to screw yourself on the sales negotiation. Do you want one more thing to practice every day? No! But practice being aware that this is probably true any time… Read more »
Be worried about the right things at the right time. I took this photo on an ancient four-prop 30 seat passenger plane in Tonga. It looked a bit like an old DC3 (it wasn’t) with the old-fashioned metal riveted skin and the only other time I’d flown in something like that was in Kenya. Obviously… Read more »
I was reminded of an important analogy in a first mentoring session with prototype-stage startup. They’re building a two-sided marketplace in a smartphone app. They couldn’t wait to show me the app and were surprised and initially a little miffed that I wasn’t interested in seeing a demo. From my background notes I could guess… Read more »
In this world of Instagram and Snapchat, Siri, Alexa and OK Google, writing in general is hard but finding time, inspiration and motivation to write blog posts is harder still. This is what works for me. Don’t undervalue what you already know Whatever you do know how to do, somewhere online there is someone who… Read more »
One of the most common questions an investor will ask a founder is, “do you see yourselves as a vitamin pill or a headache pill?”. “Uhhh… we think we’re a software startup?” Is not the correct answer. Worse, sometimes they will criticise you by saying, “You think you’re a headache pill but actually, I think… Read more »
The truth is, $500 is not going to get you very far on most marketing platforms. Unless you’re incredibly lucky you’re not going to guess correctly the first time you experiment with the variables of [creative]+[placement]+[time]+[advertising channel] and it isn’t enough marketing budget to run even one A/B test and get some conclusive results. But,… Read more »
Unicorn dehorned: Nasdaq-listed Brisbane EV charging venture Tritium collapses into receivership 
‘Have I gone too far?’ How founders can beat their startup demons 
Tassie carbon accounting startup banks $5.3 million Seed round 
The lessons from Uber, Ola and rideshare’s disruption is that in the end, the consumer still pays 
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