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There is one category of consumer tech that’s being built largely outside Silicon Valley: E-commerce. Fab, NastyGal, ShoeDazzle, Birchbox, Bonobos, Honest, Dollar Shave Club, JustFab, Warby Parker and so many other once-hyped (and in a few cases, still-hyped) “e-commerce 2.0” companies were centered in fashion and celebrity hubs of LA and New York.

This interview with Warby Parker co-founder Neil Blumenthal shows that the geographic distinction isn’t just about the weather. It’s about how the company is built. I’ve never before spoken with a Web founder who put more thought into his PR hire than his…. developers.

Warby may wind up out surviving other ecommerce roadkill because they got what they were early: A fashion and lifestyle brand, no...

If our startup sinks, everyone else gets a life raft — but Founders go down with the ship.

There are a million stories about how other entrepreneurs were able to scale successfully, but what we rarely hear about is what happens when things aren't so rosy, which is ironic since most startups don't have that picturesque outcome AND this is a great learning opportunity.

The reality is most Founders find themselves inextricably tied to their startup baby at a very personal financial level.

This means when things go sideways, it's not just the startup that's in jeopardy — it's our personal lives that get pulled into the mucky-muck. And if this is your first startup — this may not be apparent at all.

Most Big, Successful Businesses of Today Were ...

It’s a war of attrition, it really is. Most entrepreneurs in most industries just give up. So the question is — how long can you last? How long can you survive?

When I ask Derek Andersen about the biggest challenges of building his company, Startup Grind from the ground up, his response is refreshingly blunt: “All of it.”

“We didn’t have any money, so we couldn’t really hire anyone. We worked out of my garage for a year, just to just try to save money and run really really lean. We had no documents or templates or process for onboarding or anything.”

And on top of all those logistical challenges, there was this tiny one: “We didn’t have a brand, so nobody knew who we were or why we should exist.”

Funnily enough, the challenges that Startup ...

Let’s face it. Bootstrapping sucks. In theory, it should be liberating to be self-funded and self-sufficient at the early stages of running a business. But reality is much less glamorous. For one, we’re small peanuts surrounded by unicorns: our presence in the media, as a result, is almost zero. We’re competing with 10-figure marketing budgets and grinding our teeth to get there. We spend more time scratching our heads than making actual decisions.

Then, we see success stories like Basecamp, a company that could have been a unicorn but chose not to—growing to 50 employees and a customer base of hundreds of thousands along the way.

Holy shit, maybe it is all worth it.

While founders in the VC world are chasing their burn rates, Basec...

If you’ve seen the movie “The Social Network” you remember Dustin Moskovitz as the kid from Jurassic Park who did little more than sit in a corner and code. Like most other things in the movie, that wasn’t exactly true. Or– yunno– true at all.

While still close friends with Mark Zuckerberg, Moskovitz has been gone from day to day management of Facebook since 2008. But we spoke with him just before Facebook’s IPO, which was poised to make him the world’s youngest billionaire.

Moskovitz made the surprising move to leave Facebook pre-IPO to co-found Asana, a company that seeks to make communication and collaboration within companies more seamless. He says telling Zuckerberg he was quitting was one of the hardest things he’s ever done.

In this ...

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...

Startup conferences can be a great choice for both learning more about your business and meeting more like-minded entrepreneurs. Because when it comes to most things in life — dating, business, and yes, startups — who you know makes all the difference.

While some people are lucky enough to be born into families with connections or go to highly ranked schools, others have to activate that hustle to get in front of the people who will change their lives. And a big part of that startup founder hustle can be found at startup conferences.

But conferences are an investment, of your time and your money. And there are a lot of startup conferences and events these days.

So how do you know which ones are worth it?

Some things to consider are:

1. Does ...

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...

I have long argued that BuzzFeed was the most likely to become the first lasting, stand alone large public company of the digital media era.

Yes, a company called BuzzFeed could be this era’s answer to the Washington Post or CNN. And recent news reports show that investors agree: BuzzFeed is rumored to be prepping for an IPO.

But even I didn’t see that one coming back in 2012, when I interviewed CEO Jonah Peretti about his past viral sensations, his recent past building Huffington Post, and his current and future at BuzzFeed.

Given all BuzzFeed has accomplished since this interview, some of the questions are almost quaint– like my asking whether there would ever be a White House Correspondent from BuzzFeed. More stunning was Peretti’s ans...

Forget Snapchat. One of the most speculated about potential IPOs in Silicon Valley this year is file sharing and storage company Dropbox.

Dropbox was one of the earliest Valley unicorns to seem to defy any logic in valuations, and at its last round was valued at $10 billion making it one of a handful of so-called “deca-corns.” At one time, it and Airbnb made up some 95% of the value of Y-Combinator’s entire portfolio. And it was backed early on by top venture capital firms Sequoia Capital, on their way to raising some $600 million in capital. Its office was so lavish it reportedly spent up to $40 million a year just on employee perks. Its lobby sported a $100,000 statue of a Panda.

Yes, for a while, Dropbox and its co-founder and CEO Drew H...