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What if college simply doesn't make sense for aspiring Founders — are we ready to sacrifice this sacred cow?

Last week I was having lunch with a very successful old friend who made over $100 million in his career. He wanted me to sit down and advise his 18-year-old son who had just graduated high school. The first thing he said was, "He's decided to skip college and go straight to starting his own company."

This is the first time I've heard a parent say that out loud, but I'm starting to think it certainly won't be the last.

My immediate gut reaction was going to be some defense of college, even though I dropped out as fast as I could to start my first company. But no matter how many points I sped through in my mind, I couldn't come up with...

*"Fear and uncertainty are at an all time high right now among Founders, but this what we are built for. In the most uncertain times we build our greatest dreams. We plow forward when everyone else runs away. Stand strong, friends, we're gonna get through this together."

— Wil Schroter*

There’s a funny thing about building a startup: if it doesn’t scare the hell out of you, you’re probably not building it right.

Founders like to dream big, talk big, and pitch big. But behind every pitch deck and inspirational LinkedIn post is a cold, shaky hand wondering if this is the moment everything falls apart. That’s not weakness — that’s the real cost of greatness.

Even small outcomes can require big risks, and those don't come with a safety net. The...

Guessing is Not a Successful Sales Strategy. Create an ideal customer profile instead.

Think your product is “for everyone”? That’s cute. It’s also a ticket to early stage startup hell.

One of the top reasons startups fail (42%!) is building something nobody actually needs. Translation: they never clearly defined who their real customer was. In startup post-mortems you’ll hear the haunting refrain: “no market need.”

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) is the antidote to that fate. It’s the crystal-clear picture of who truly needs what you’re selling. An ICP helps in qualifying leads effectively, ensuring your sales and marketing teams focus on the target audience.

Without it, you’re basically playing darts blindfolded and hoping for a bullseye...

Most startup Founders never get rich — and it's 100% our own fault.

I'm not talking about not getting rich because our startup failed — that one is obvious. I'm talking about having a startup that actually worked and still not getting rich. And when I say "rich" I don't mean "Powerball Rich" I'm talking in most cases, making any money at all. As a whole, we tend to suck at making money for ourselves.

The reason for this is that the startup ethos is riddled with fallacies about how we should approach profit and wealth. We've constructed a narrative that glorifies sacrifice and risk while somehow completely overlooking common sense and profit.

Founders need a reality check. We need to remind ourselves that treading down the most dangerous pat...

Most startups launch with $0 in funding, but no one ever really explains how the hell they do it. We keep saying, "They bootstrapped it," as if that explains anything other than "They didn't take on investors." What the heck does that even mean? What it is intended to mean is that we find creative ways to compensate people and buy things that don't involve using cash in the bank.

We can't possibly cover every use case of how startups find resources for $0, but let's take a look at the most popular categories that people run around looking for money for and see how we make it work.

Paying for People

Figuring out how to compensate people is where we're often stuck first. Most of us are familiar with paying folks with equity, but that's not th...

Failed Founders are some of the best investments because they understand precisely how hard it is to build a startup, and most importantly, are willing to do it again.

Yes, Founders fail. Sometimes, they fail in spectacular fashion (which is harder than it looks), but they do indeed fail. We seem to understand that part well, but what tends to confound many of us is why those same failed Founders can continue to raise more money from investors.

Haven't investors learned their lesson? Don't they understand that the last time they gave that Founder money, they took a monumental loss? Why, with so much evidence that the Founder has practically set their money on fire, would they even think about giving them more?

Well, friends, it turns out t...

Yes, AI is actually going to change everything, and No, we're not all totally screwed.

Why? Because every time we embrace change as Founders, we create exponentially more value than has ever existed before. And every time things change, everyone freaks out and thinks the "old ways" were the only way things should have been done.

I'm an avid carpenter — I build tons of stuff with power tools. Every time I'm zipping through a piece of lumber with my portable saw I think, "Some poor bastard used to have to do this by hand. I bet the moment he saw an electric saw, he figured he'd be out of a job!"

What we're missing with that line of thinking isn't whether we'll be displaced — it's whether we should have been doing that work by hand, to begin w...

Businesses need to be able to access capital for growth and stability, which is why understanding the different approaches to raising funds is essential. This blog post provides an in-depth guide on analyzing, comparing, and applying various methods of obtaining funding so that companies have the ample financial resources they require.

Short Summary

• Understanding the importance of capital raising and different methods available to businesses.

• Evaluating pros & cons of equity financing vs debt financing, as well as innovative strategies such as crowdfunding, peer-to-peer lending, and strategic partnerships.

• Attracting investors by crafting a compelling pitch, building a strong network & demonstrating past successes. Plus preparing for capital ra...

Venture capital, when provided by venture capitalists, serves a crucial role in stimulating economic growth and fostering innovation. Without it, the market landscape would be devoid of innovative startups with groundbreaking ideas. Fortunately, this form of funding gives life to these businesses, which in turn promotes progress for all. In this blog post, we discuss how venture capital works from its structure and ecosystem to potential risks as well as rewards that come along with it.

Short Summary

• Venture capital is a form of private equity investment that provides capital to high-potential startups and small businesses.

• It involves an extensive process of due diligence, term sheet negotiations, and post-investment support for portfolio com...

It is difficult to predict the specific types of startups that will be most successful in 2023, as the success of a startup can depend on a variety of factors such as market demand, competition, and the unique value proposition of the business.

However, here are 20 business ideas to start the brainstorming process:

1 - Virtual events platform

Virtual events, such as conferences, trade shows, and workshops, have become increasingly popular in recent years due to the rise of remote work and the convenience of participating in events online. A virtual events platform could be a successful startup business model for a number of reasons:

Market demand:

There is a growing demand for virtual events as more organizations look for ways to host events onl...