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H ave you ever taken a quiz to find out what Disney Princess you are? Or clicked on a listicle on Buzzfeed promoted by [insert brand here]?

If so: Congratulations. You’re a human being.

You’ve also been on the receiving end of one of the most formative marketing trends of the 21st century: content marketing.

Content marketing isn’t exactly new – it’s been sweeping the marketing landscape for a decade or more now. “Content is king” the headlines proclaim – and for good reason. From blog posts and infographics to Youtube channels and branded podcasts, brands today are tapping into an ever-expanding toolbox of tactics and storytelling techniques to get their message across.

But, what about the plan behind the substance? What is it that makes t...

Just like there are many different kinds of capital round raises for businesses in all stages of growth, there are a variety of crowdfunding types. Which crowdfunding method an entrepreneur selects depends on the type of product or service they offer and their goals for growth.

The three primary types of crowdfunding are donation-based, rewards-based, and equity crowdfunding. This guide looks primarily at rewards-based and equity crowdfunding.

1. Donation-Based Crowdfunding

Broadly speaking, it’s correct to think of any crowdfunding campaign in which there is no financial return to the investors or contributors as donation-based crowdfunding.

Common donation-based crowdfunding initiatives include fundraising for disaster relief, charities...

What is product-market fit?

While the term “product-market fit” gets thrown around a lot in the startup world, it’s not always very well understood. In fact, we can’t even agree on who created it! Some people say that the concept of product-market fit was first developed and named by entrepreneur and investor Andy Rachleff. Others give credit to famed investor Marc Andreessen, who at the very least popularized term product-market fit when he wrote about in a 2007 blog post. He said, “Product-market fit means being in a good market with a product that can satisfy that market.”

In other words: You could have an amazing, sophisticated, well-thought out idea — and people just don’t get it. (Think: That first focus group for Pied Piper on HBO’s ...

As Founders, it’s important to share our knowledge with kids about startups and the entrepreneurial mindset at an early age.

Here are four reasons why:

1. It will help them stand out in a competitive workforce.

2. They’ll learn how to chart their own course in life.

3. They’ll develop problem-solving and critical thinking skills.

4. They’ll learn how to be creative and innovative thinkers.

To help kids get a better understanding of startups, we can introduce them to the basics such as:

1. Identifying new opportunities in the market and coming up with viable solutions.

2. Testing those solutions through prototypes and MVPs.

3. Understanding how to pitch their business idea effectively.

4. Learning how to scale their businesses and make them sustainable.

We can als...

Most Founders have a "certain set of skills" that apply to one aspect of their startup, whether it's deep product knowledge or incredible domain expertise from their previous job.

Unfortunately, in a startup, we sorta need to be a jack of all trades because we're often the only person doing all the work!

Let's assume that you could only invest the bare minimum in the various aspects of your startup operations.

Here's the least you'd need to know.

What about finance? Do I need to know the numbers?

At the very least a Founder should understand how an income statement works.

That simply means "here's where we're making money, here's where we're spending it, and here's how much we're making (or losing)." If you didn't understand a balance s...

A Startup's financial health isn't just about updating financial statements and balance sheets — it's about understanding basic business financials, and guess what? It's not that hard. This primer is designed for Founders and operators who know little to nothing about startup financials.

Intro: The Basics of Startup Finance

The fundamentals of startup finance are this simple – we record every income item (our goods sold) on one side and then record every cost (operating expenses) on the other side of our financial statements. We subtract the income from the costs – and voila! – profit (or a loss... in the early days it’s usually a loss.)

There’s no special black magic to recording income and expenses.

We don't need Complex Accounting Software (...

Becoming a startup CEO requires zero qualifications — that's because we're often not really CEOs (for those that don't already know, a CEO is the chief executive officer of a company).

Anyone who founds a company is by default the CEO. My 9-year-old daughter incorporated her pet-sitting business and is technically its CEO. But she doesn't walk around comparing herself to Jeff Bezos.

As Founder-CEOs, we need to have a very sober outlook on our new title and as such, so do all of the people around us. After all, a successful startup CEO is responsible for more than a "company builder" — they are expected to create the company culture, form the leadership team, and keep everyone in the org moving in the right direction. We basically need to take...

With such high stakes and low standards, it's not hard to imagine many startup Founder/CEOs are sitting around wondering "Shouldn't someone else more qualified be better at this job?"

The answer is "Yes" — and yet you should probably be the one doing it anyway.

"There has to be someone more qualified, right?"

If we're looking at just resumes, yes, our resume would probably not make the cut. We don't have that MBA in Finance, we've never grown a big brand, we've never hired a full staff, we've never raised money for a company before.

Wow, now that we think about it, we're more unqualified than when we asked the question!

But that's not what qualifies a startup CEO in the formative years.

In the formative years, the qualification to be a s...

A capitalization table or "cap table" is a record of the equity ownership and actual ownership percentage of each member of the company. Private companies typically develop a cap table when they are first formed to capture the stock ownership of the co-founders and then later begin recording stock ownership of employees, advisors, and investors.

Why do Startups need Cap Tables?

The moment the number of shares in our startup expands to more than one owner, we typically create the company's cap table. This is just a ledger of where the company's ownership stands and can be captured in something as simple as a spreadsheet.

As our startup expands, cap table management becomes more complex, such as when we take on a funding round with a venture cap...

We recently hired someone in our finance department that lasted about a week. He happened to be in his 50’s. During his exit interview he said “I wasn’t prepared to work for a company ran by Millennials”.

Until that moment I have never actually considered myself a “Millennial”. I talked about them as “they”, but never thought I was part of the “them” group. I Googled it — turns out “Millennials” apply to anyone born between 1982 and 2004. I was born in 1984….. I guess I AM a Millennial.

Okay, I’ll own it. If that is the case, what makes working for Millennials “different”?

1. I’ll call you out.

The Baby Boomer generation grew up on Dale Carnegie leadership principles. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve read “How to win friends and influence people”...