Running a startup is a ton of work as a solo Founder, so much so that many Founders find themselves at a loss trying to get everything done. For those that are non-technical, this proves to be a challenge, as coding is essential in this day and age, so bringing on a technical co-founder is a must. This is also true for technical Founders missing the mark on the creative front, so it's no surprise that one of the most searched terms on the internet is "finding a cofounder."

It seems like it should be easy — find a co-founder (or more) that aligns with your startup idea, mission, and has the complementary skills to do all the things you don't know how to — but it's not that simple. Finding the right co-founder is a complex combination of effor...

How to Sell an Idea to a Company Without Them Stealing It

For many, coming up with an innovative idea leads to a desire to do something with it — and in the absence of knowing how to commercialize a great idea, many people jump to the conclusion that it can simply be sold to a big company. Then they worry that the big company will simply take their idea, and leave them in the dust. It’s a great story — it just tends to be a tale of fiction, on many levels.

Before We Answer the Question of a Company Stealing My Great Idea, Can I Sell My Idea to a Company at All?

I talk to thousands of startup founders, inventors, creatives, engineers, and other ideating and innovating types every year.

At least 100 times a year I'm asked "Ryan, I've got this gre...

What is venture capital?

Venture capital is financing that’s invested in startups and small businesses that are usually high risk, but also have the potential for exponential growth.

The goal of a venture capital investment is a very high return for the venture capital firm, usually in the form of an acquisition of the startup or an IPO.

Why would you want to use venture capital?

Venture capital is a great option for startups that are looking to scale big — and quickly. Because the investments are fairly large, your startup has to be prepared to take that money and grow.

Advantages of working with venture capitalist firms

The biggest advantage of working with venture capital firms is that if your startup goes under — as most do — you’re no...

Startup culture has gone from glorifying victory to glorifying effort.

"Hustle Porn" has become more and more popular, particularly on social media, where would-be champions of entrepreneurship proclaim their insane personal sacrifices to the Gods of Startups. We're constantly wooed with tales of Founders putting in insane hours, risking it all, and coming away with the spoils of success to show for it.

How much of this is really a celebration of hard work and is how much is just the equivalent of giving ourselves a Participation Award for effort?

"I just put in 100 hours this week!"

Let's start by debunking the myth that working 100 hours in a week is somehow a victory to be lauded — it's not. The intention is that we're SO dedicated to ou...

Continuing in Phase One of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

• Part 1 - Startup Bootstrapping

• Part 2 - Debt as Startup Capital

• Part 3 - Equity Funding for Startups

• Part 4 - Convertible Debt ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let's dive in!

What is convertible debt?

Convertible Debt (or a “Convertible Note”) is often used as a method for making an equity financing investment. Unlike regular equity financing investments, though, Convertible Debt includes terms like an Interest Rate, Maturity Date, and Valuation Cap - which we’ll explain here as to how they play a role in a Convertible note.

Convertible Debt is essentially a mash-up of debt financing and eq...

How could we possibly be "right" as Founders when literally everything we are doing is unknown?

Think about it — we're building a startup that has never existed with a product that's being invented and run by a team that's never worked together delivering to a customer who has never heard of us. Oh, and did I mention as Founders we've probably never done this before?

What about that formula drives certainty?

Separating Founder Mistakes from Failure

Let me start by saying this — there is no possible way, NO possible way, that as startup Founders (especially first-time founders) we could possibly make the right decision over and over in our early-stage startup.

In fact, the only way TO make the right decision is going to be to make tons of mi...

A crypto startup is a business that deals with cryptocurrencies. Startups focused on this industry have been popping up all over the world in recent years. With the rise of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, many entrepreneurs are looking to create their own crypto or blockchain-based startup.

It sounds easy enough in theory, but for those new to the industry, it's much like learning another language. In this article, we aim to define, expand on, and share insights we have compiled to demystify the process of launching a crypto startup.

There are five main steps to starting a crypto startup (we'll expand more on this below):

1. Identify a problem that needs solving.

2. Create a white paper outlining the idea (i.e. a solution to the...

Continuing in Phase Two of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

• Part 1 - Introduction to Startup Investors

• Part 2 - How to find Startup Investors (←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let's dive in!

The search for investors takes time. However, we can at least make sure the time you do invest is well spent. These days “investor research” really means combing through a handful of databases and Web sites to find potential connections to the investment community.

Finding investors isn’t like finding a plumber. There’s no “directory of interested investors” available from the small business administration that you carpet bomb with emails and wait for people to ...

What's the least we need as Founders to be happy?

For as much time as we invest in building our startups to achieve our goals, we spend shockingly little time in identifying what those goals actually mean. The danger in not defining our minimum viable happiness goals is that we wind up hoping to "find happiness" but never really defining how to get there.

And that's a pretty big problem when we're in the early stages of building a startup when very little helps fill our "happiness meter."

It's easy to make big, lofty, far away goals, but frankly, that's pretty useless right now. What we need to do is identify the shortest term, minimum goals that will make us happy so that we do everything in our power to get there as quickly as possible.

Welcome to Phase Two of our four-part Funding Series — all about Investor Selection!

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

• Part 1 - Introduction to Startup Investors (←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

• Part 2 - How to find Startup Investors

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

This article is an Introduction to Startup Investors. Let's dive in!

Whatever stage your business is in when you launch your fundraising efforts, you can find the investor support that you’re looking for. Now that you’ve determined the fundraise structure that matches your needs and goals, it’s all about finding the investors that make sense.

All investors are not created equal.

They may all have capital, but the vast majority of investment profe...