So Aaron Hillegass who started Big Nerd Ranch got the entrepreneurial community all in an uproar with his post "Don't Start A Company, Kid." The article is directed toward soon to be college graduates that BNR is trying to recruit. And while I disagree with the rationale that Aaron presents I actually agree with his […]
Continue reading →Over the Thanksgiving break I breezed through Nick Bolton's "Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal." It is a fast paced easy read filled with exactly what the title promises. Co-founder/board/executive level drama. There are some good lessons as well. Don't hire your friends just because they are your friends. This, […]
Continue reading →Allen Nance posted a nice article on Startup Grind the other day. In it he asks this simple question. There is a lot of startup events and conversations happening around Atlanta, it is exciting to see, but I am wondering: “is it really helping, honestly, is it helping create better entrepreneurs and more awesome businesses?” […]
Continue reading →So a bright young entrepreneur walked into my office the other day. Interesting market. Has assembled a team. Built a product. Has significant user traction. And revenue. He was looking to raise $400k with a pre-money valuation of about $1.6 million. Seemed reasonable to me. Asked me if I wanted to see his PPM. Uhh, not […]
Continue reading →Back in the day when I used to listen to lots of investor presentations I was sitting in a room one day listening to a pitch with a group of angels and VCs doing exactly that. The entrepreneur got to his financial projections slide. Everybody started shaking their head yes. They liked the numbers. At […]
Continue reading →The Fall 2013 version of Atlanta Startup Weekend is taking place this weekend at ATDC. The 54 hours of fun kicks off on Friday night at 6:00 and concludes on Sunday night with the judging and awards. While some angel funded startups have emerged from this fest (Skibit, Twitpay, and Synapp to name a few) […]
Continue reading →Last night at the end of the work day I walked down the hall at Atlanta Tech Village to a The Founder Institute info session. I did it primarily because I wanted to hear what The Founder Institute was all about. It's good stuff. The Founder Institute rightly positions itself somewhere between Startup Weekend and […]
Continue reading →Alan Dabbiere wrote a most excellent article on the WSJ blog The Accelerators. A lot of folks (David Cummings and Stephen Fleming to name two) have been writing about why Atlanta is a great place to build and scale a startup recently but Alan really hits the nail on the head. This is from a […]
Continue reading →It's kinda odd some of the discussions that I have recently had with early stage entrepreneurs about angel rounds. Folks wanting to raise $800k at a valuation more than $5 million. Seems a little rich to me and I said as much. Well Silicon Valley Bank is out with their Q2 Halo Report. And sure […]
Continue reading →The subject of startup equity distribution is one that seems to generate a lot of interest. Mine was piqued again by James Altucher's brilliant article on The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Starting and Running a Business. I wish I had have written this one line, "The rules are: I'm going to give no explanations. Just […]
Continue reading →