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I had never heard so many f-bombs in my life. That’s saying a lot, considering I’ve watched my fair share of Martin Scorsese films. It was a Tuesday afternoon, and my 2-year-old and I were walking through the mall. A group of young people followed close behind, not even attempting to censor themselves.

Hey, I get it. I was young once — many years ago. The absence of parental authority allowed these youngsters to enter an uncensored, primal place of freedom. When the cat’s away, the mice play. The same thing happens with the employees in your organization when you’re not around — albeit with fewer f-bombs. Who knows, maybe more.

“Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t work with my 2-year-old, it didn’t work with me as a teenager, and it doesn’t w...

There's a time to get tough and keep building our startups. And there's a time to be honest about simply folding the tents.

The problem is that our own egos can rarely distinguish between the two.

We hear these (revisionist) stories of great entrepreneurs overcoming insurmountable odds to build the great companies of today, and we assume that in order to earn our own tale, we'll need to bring ourselves to the brink of destruction to do the same.

But the truth is, more often than not, the idea of running ourselves into the ground is just that: we're just killing ourselves with little upside or glory on the other side of the journey. As Founders, we need to have an honest dialog about when it's really time to put a bullet in this thing for th...

Time and again I have been told how The Art of War by Sun Tzu is a great resource for gaining insights on strategy. I’ve heard it all from how it’s a required reading in many Japanese companies to how Bill Belichick uses it to fill his fingers with Super Bowl rings. So the time came when I finally decided to give it a shot, shortly after I was pleasantly surprised on how many of the 5th century BC strategies actually aligned with modern day business and startups in particular.

Below I have highlighted four passages, which I believe hold timeless business advice for early stage companies. Along with the passages, I have added my contemporary interpretation, modern evidence through research, and real world examples.

On Adaptability

What is a Limited Partnership?

A limited partnership (LP) is a type of business partnership that has two types of partners — general and limited — and there are different liabilities for the two.

In order to qualify as an LP, a business has to have at least one general partner and one limited partner.

General partners in an LP are personally liable for the business. Because the general partner of a business can be a person or entity, many people choose to set up an LLC to act as the general partner, thereby avoiding personal liability. General partners are also involved the actual running of the business.

Limited partners, on the other hand, aren’t personally liable. Limited partners can’t contribute to the day-to-day operation of the busi...

Facebook, Adobe, Autodesk and Planet Labs all have started creative residency programs in the last year, but they are nothing new.

Artist-in-residence programs started over a century ago and ranged from making studio space in offices to placing painters, sculptors, poets and musicians at universities.

Art has always been an important part of innovation. It actually helps Nobel Prize winners (and everyone else) be better at science. And when you combine entrepreneurs and artists you get some fantastic results.

And just like how every entrepreneur-in-residence program is different, artist residencies vary widely and often depend on the organization they are inserted in.

What is the benefit of an artist-in-residence program for you company?

A...

Everyone talks about starting companies — yet no one ever tells us how to shut them down.

That's because by the time startups go into this dark, hazy abyss called "shut down" mode, things get really quiet. We stop hearing from Founders, investors start talking about other "hot new investments," and the media has moved on long ago.

That doesn't change the fact that most startups fail, and with that, Founders need to have a grounded understanding in how to wind down their startups gracefully.

This is very difficult advice for a frustrated Founder to seek because it's often embarrassing to even ask, or in some cases, the people they need to seek counsel with are actually connected to the business.

So for all of my fellow Founders who are wre...

Is it better to risk it all for a big outcome or count on a steady paycheck to create wealth?

Having watched tens of thousands of Founders live through the answer to this question, I can tell you it comes down to 3 related factors — our age, our earning potential, and our exit options.

When we answer this question, we often subconsciously fill in some of those values in our minds. So perhaps we say, "The paycheck is better!" because we're thinking about a 45-year-old professional making $300,000 per year.

But when we say, "The big outcome is what matters!" we might be only considering that risk for a 28-year-old without a mortgage or kids. Either way, the conditions drive the argument, so let's talk about those.

It Depends on Our Age

Risk i...

It’s that time of year again! Get ready for all of the year-end lists, advice, and wrap-ups. Every year, we soak that stuff up, but this year, I’m focusing on something different: my team.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a few things as the holidays roll around.

Naturally, people want to take time off with their friends and family. They should. And they should also prepare accordingly by managing client expectations so they can enjoy their time away.

This is also prime time for folks to reevaluate their lives and career goals. As a boss, that means lots of hand-holding and long conversations with employees around career trajectory and promotion possibilities.

At my company, we’re slammed in the fourth quarter. It’s a good problem to have, but ...

It was one of the first gut-check moments where you have to prove to yourself how much you want it.

Corey Egan and his co-Founder Swapnil Bora were feeling pretty good about the direction their company was headed in in summer 2014. ” We had gone through a series of business competitions, we had filed patents, we had built out prototypes,” Corey remembers.

Not only that – when they looked out at the market, Corey says: “We were the first ones we had seen to put anything out there.”

Then one morning, Corey woke up and everything had changed.

“I woke up and I had like ten text messages from folks that I knew saying, ‘Hey Corey, this just launched on Kickstarter today,’ ” Corey remembers. “And it was a crowdfunding campaign for what is now one ...

How Hard is it to Get a Business Loan?

Unfortunately, business loans can be difficult for startups to procure.

That’s because while some funding sources in the startup ecosystem — like VCs and angel investors — are looking to take big risks, traditional financial institutions like banks generally aren’t.

You’re going to need to show that you have perfect personal (and probably business) credit and they might even require that you’re profitable or on track to become profitable. Generally, banks prefer businesses that have a proven track record when they’re handing out loans.

But that doesn’t mean business loans are impossible for startup founders! It’s just something to keep in mind when you’re considering a bank loan as a funding source.