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Founders have to learn so many new skills when they're launching a startup, and writing a business plan is a big one. When you're writing your business plan for the first time, things can get… intimidating.

What do you include? What kind of wording should you use? What do you make sure not to include? Is a mid size business plan different than an enterprise plan or a scalable startup? Do I need to include financials like cash flow statements? What do investors want to see?

It's enough to make even a stalwart startup founder and management team throw in the towel before they've even begun.

Lucky for you — we've created a complete guide to writing your business plan. Check it out if you haven't already. (And if a link from there brought you here...

"Nearly every startup that goes IPO raises capital — doesn't that say it all?" — Every VC

Whenever I get into a debate with a Founder or Investor over whether startups need to raise capital, the discussion inevitability leads to that "trump card" of finality. The thinking goes that if every single super-successful startup has raised capital (by IPO standards) then it's impossible to overlook that data — or disagree.

While there's nothing wrong with raising capital (we run Fundable.com, a fundraising platform!) I think the default reasoning requires a bit more examination. This isn't so much a case for not raising capital — it's a challenge to some broken assumptions that matter.

"All the Best Companies Raise Capital"

By definition, the comp...

From single founders with no team to some of the biggest tech companies in the world, our definition of “startup” is extremely broad — and very unclear.

While most people wouldn’t put Uber and Facebook in the same category as the apps and games and services being hatched in co-working spaces across the country, they’re all still referred to as startups (and sometimes seen as "start-ups").

So what is a startup company, anyway?

Perhaps the most popular definition of a startup meaning is from Eric Ries, the creator of the Lean Startup methodology:

Startups.com Co-Founder and CEO Wil Schroter has his own definition of what ...

Crowdfunding has become the go-to resource for entrepreneurs looking to launch new products and businesses. It’s an incredible tool to gather support and test ideas on a smaller scale, before moving ahead full-force on a business. That said, it also requires entrepreneurs to put in plenty of work in order to be successful.

Recently, there has been a lot of buzz surrounding rewards crowdfunding projects that are failing to make good on their promises – delivering rewards late, if at all, and unable to detail their plan to supply the products pre-ordered by backers. Some would say that it is crowdfunding’s biggest problem to solve, and has led to heated discussion over who is to blame when a backer is left high and dry without the rewards the...

The SBA helps small businesses that may not be eligible for traditional bank loans by guaranteeing large portions of the loan on the entrepreneur’s behalf.

These loans are generally available through your local bank who relies on the SBA to back the loan in order to make it easier for them to take the risk of lending a new business without a significant amount of collateral.

Who’s eligible for a SBA loan?

Although the loans are backed by the SBA, they still require some basic underwriting by the bank to make sure the borrower can manage the loan similar to a standard bank loan.

What about poor credit?

The SBA may be underwriting the loan, but they still want to make sure it can be paid back. Standard credit risk factors (such as your score)...

As one of the partners of a Ruby on Rails software development agency, I speak with dozens of non-technical startup founders every week who are in various stages of building their first web or mobile application. The range of technical acumen, willingness to learn, and time and resources varies widely among the group.

As a firm, we’re not just competing with other NYC-based agencies for their business, but also offshore devshops, freelancers, and in some cases, the prospective client who may want to execute internally.

At the end of the day, a non-technical founder who has decided that they must build something has two options: pay someone else, or partner with people. Below are the pros and cons.

Paying Someone Else

Obviously, every situat...

The following post is an excerpt is from Chapter 2 of the book Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us: How to Raise $1 Million for Your Startup – Even Outside of Silicon Valley, by Mike Belsito. This chapter specifically talks about the importance of finding traction for your startup, even at the earliest stages of building a product and raising seed capital. Further, this chapter discusses specifics on what entrepreneurs can do to build up that traction at these early stages.

CHAPTER TWO
The Only Chapter You May Need to Read

Traction: It’s what investors everywhere are looking for in order to determine whether to anoint your startup “the next big thing” and inject the cold, hard cash needed to accelerate your business. If you can’t fin...

Preparing to pitch investors is all about getting your pitch materials in order. Most investor introductions follow a common sequence of events that will require you to provide different versions of your business plan throughout the process.

Investors want to find the right fit. They want to see the right location, market size and traction, among other things.

In many cases, it’s the same information simply repackaged to fit the right method of communication. For example, providing a couple sentences makes sense to explain your business in an email, but won’t cut it in a presentation. Conversely, sending a 50-page business plan attached to your introduction email is surely the wrong approach toward making a good first impression with invest...

Question: What is your current favorite startup-related newsletter or website and why?

The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched StartupCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Lewis Howes’ Podcast

I really like reading and listening to the Lewis Howes podcast on School of Greatness. He interviews some of the top minds on the Internet about what it takes to become big. A close second would be Startup Grind podcast. You can’t beat the amazing stories you’ll hear.

– Peter Daisyme
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Help Scout’...

I recently had coffee with a startup founder (let’s call him Ben) that has been working at his startup for the past year or so. His vision for his product and company had developed quite nicely since we first met, when his concept wasn’t much more than some rough sketches and guesses at what it could become. In the past year, Ben and his partner had bootstrapped their way to launching an MVP and signing up some initial Beta customers. He’s now at the point where he’s fine tuning his product to understand if it’s really serving his customers right. While the venture has been self-funded to this point, Ben plans on soon talking to investors in anticipation of later raising seed capital.

There’s just one problem: Ben has no idea how to value h...