999 Posts Found

Looking for venture capital? Don’t be so quick to sign on the dotted line. Here’s what you need to know about liquidation preferences and preferred stock.

Content: Article | Author: Darren Dahl | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Legal

For those contemplating pursuing a search fund, or investing in one, the CES has created a practical guide to answer the most frequently asked questions. The Primer aims to provide an unbiased view of the benefits and challenges, explains the model from the entrepreneurs’ and investors’ perspective, and gives many operational and execution tips from previous search fund entrepreneurs.

Content: Article | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Entrepreneurship

A decade ago, a company would need to raise a couple of million of dollars to create a new product and effectively bring it to market. Today that amount is dramatically smaller. The advent of cloud computing, open source software, platforms with APIs, and numerous other changes have lowered the cost of launching a new enterprise. For this reason, startup companies are … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Ted Wang | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Legal

Your financial statements may not make the bestseller list, but they do tell an intriguing story—at least to a banker. Unfortunately, the tale they tell may be misleading. Since finance is no place for fiction, you need to make sure your statements tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

To do that, the first thing you need to know is that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Kate Lister | Source: OPEN Forum (American Express) | Subjects: Accounting, Small Business

Stanford Technology Ventures Program’s Executive Director Tina Seelig shares rich insights in creative thinking and the entrepreneurial mindset. Her talk, based on her 2009 book, What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20, cites numerous classroom successes of applied problem-solving and the lessons of failure.

Content: Multimedia Content | Author: Tina Seelig | Source: Stanford University | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Paul Graham says that good startup founders can be described in two words: relentlessly resourceful. I agree, but I would add two words of my own: arrogant and naïve. Arrogant enough to get in the ring, and naïve enough that you still think you will win after you feel the first punch.

Content: Quotation | Author: Richard Aberman | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subject: Entrepreneurship

The pioneer is convinced that it knows what market a new thing is designed for. But this rarely is the market that subsequently picks up the product.

Content: Quotation | Author: Peter F. Drucker | Source: Context Magazine | Subject: Entrepreneurship

We’ve overdone this whole leadership/founder/entrepreneur thing. And we’re not spending nearly enough time crediting the folks who turn all that visionary stuff into tangible reality: the chief operating officers, the midlevel managers, the staffers. If the word didn’t have a pejorative tinge to it, I guess you’d call them followers.

We degrade the very idea of followers — lemmings! — yet the world needs people who … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Nancy Lublin | Source: Fast Company | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Leadership

If your aspirations are not greater than your resources, you’re not an entrepreneur. For large companies to be entrepreneurial, they have to create aspirations greater than their resources. You can call it “strategy as stretch” or “strategic intent.”

Content: Quotation | Author: C.K. Prahalad | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Venture capitalist Fred Wilson is well known in tech circles for his regular blogging and free advice. He’s just wrapped up his “MBA Mondays” series, and it’s full of good advice for those looking to start their own business, tech or otherwise.

Wilson basically covers all the questions that an investor, a consultant, or an accountant would ask a business owner to answer in founding and … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Fred Wilson | Source: A VC | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank usually hears the “Should I get my MBA?” question at least once a month. Here’s his answer for those interested in entrepreneurship.

Content: Article | Author: Steve Blank | Source: VentureBeat | Subjects: Career, Entrepreneurship, MBA Related

Although entrepreneurs provide the majority of jobs in the United States, little is known about what makes them tick. The Anatomy of an Entrepreneur fills in some gaps by providing insights into high-growth founders’ motivations, their socio-economic, educational, and familial backgrounds, as well as their views on the factors determining the success of start-ups.

A team of researchers led by Vivek Wadhwa of Duke University, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Kauffman Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership | Subject: Entrepreneurship

There are no guarantees when it comes to running a business. But the best entrepreneurs I know follow these guidelines.

Content: Article | Author: Norm Brodsky | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Management

Should you join the millions of people every year who take the plunge and start their first ventures? Developed by Babson College professor Daniel Isenberg, this 20-question quiz on HBR.org takes just a few minutes to complete and might help you decide.

Content: Article | Author: Daniel Isenberg | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Venkatesh Rao tries to turn the lean startup conversation, anchored by Steve Blank’s book, The Four Steps to the Epiphany, into a self-administered inquisition. He offers a test, a round-up of the lean startup conversation, and a micro-riff on applying this to your life

Content: Article | Author: Venkatesh Rao | Source: ribbonfarm | Subject: Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs who dream of building the next Amazon, Facebook, or Google have the opportunity to take advantage of one of the most powerful economic engines the world has ever known: venture capital. To do that, you need to woo, impress, and persuade venture capitalists to back your endeavor. That task alone is a challenge. But finding and choosing the right investor can be harder still. … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Jeffrey Bussgang | Subjects: Entrepreneurship, Venture Capital

Venture capitalist Brad Feld counts four different standardized seed financing documents floating around the industry (click through for links to each) and would like to see that consolidate to one truly standardize set. Thus, he has decided to try to get a handful of lawyers in a room and try to come out with one set of documents. Who knows if he will succeed but … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Brad Feld | Source: Feld Thoughts | Subject: Entrepreneurship

An entrepreneur’s guide to offering trade credit, crafting a credit application, and evaluating a customer’s credit-worthiness.

Content: Article | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Finance, Management, Small Business

Seelig, executive director of the entrepreneurship center at Stanford’s School of Engineering, presents a thoughtful, concise set of observations for those making the unsteady transition to adulthood. While the majority of her advice is intended for would-be entrepreneurs, her accessible lessons should come in handy for those in any field, as well as those still trying to decide on a field. Culled from her personal … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Tina Seelig | Subjects: Career, Entrepreneurship

Over the past ten years, the OECD has addressed entrepreneurship issues in various analyses and reports. While these studies compiled relevant data to support specific research or policy tasks, no effort was made to establish an ongoing database of entrepreneurship across OECD countries. In 2004, the 2nd OECD Ministerial Conference on SMEs in Istanbul, “Promoting Entrepreneurship and Innovative SMEs in a Global Economy”, concluded that … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) | Subject: Entrepreneurship