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Growing up broke was one of the most valuable assets to shape me as a startup Founder. At the time it didn't feel too valuable (it sucked) but I'd come to learn later that it burned specific traits into my behavior that served me insanely well in building startups from scratch.

Many of us have had the same challenges, coming from disadvantaged upbringings that felt like a setback at the time but also became crucibles of learning and adaptation that actually made us far more capable when our skills were put to the test later on.

We're Forced to Become Experts

When we're broke, we can't afford to pay anyone to do anything. Plumbing breaks? We become a plumber. Car won't start? We become a mechanic. We just don't have a choice, so it forces us...

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...

One of the most common questions we get asked is, "Should I raise capital for my business?" _What they’re really asking is, “Can you tell me how to raise money and where to find it?”_

And our stock answer is simply "No".

That tends to mess with people — because they typically aren’t expecting pushback. But the reality is that there are actually very few reasons that a startup absolutely has to raise capital. Every startup could use it. But does every startup absolutely have to raise?

Nope.

Having answered this question about a billion times, it seemed like the right time to list what the decision tree for startup Founders should be when determining they must raise capital so we can distinguish the difference between "I need it" and "I have...

Intro to using experts to validate your startup ideas

Now that we know there is an opportunity in the market for our startup idea, we want to get some expert advice on how to approach that problem, target market, and industry.

Think of this phase as asking your college professor what the answers to the idea validation test are before you ever start the course.

In almost every case there are experts out there that know many of the answers you're looking for and are willing to share that information with you.

The challenge is to find the right experts and present them with very specific questions about your business idea, and in return get highly specific feedback.

Their feedback can help shortcut the market validation process, market research, ev...

We're all building the wrong product — we just don't know it yet.

Every great product is really just a bunch of bad assumptions that get shaped into the right ones. The idea that we could define exactly what our customer wants with all the perfect features is mostly a myth (unless we got lucky!)

What's tricky as Founders is that we have a very short window to get this right, and let's face it, our livelihoods often depend on that window. We don't have countless months and years to "tinker" — we have to get this thing right really fast.

So we end up beating our heads against the wall, trying to compress time and get the perfect product to the market so we can build and scale a successful company. But what if the time we're trying to compress...

Can a startup apply for a small business loan? Are you sure? Usually when startup founders think about funding, we think about venture capital or accelerator programs. That’s because those funding sources offer potentially big payouts, oftentimes with no obligation to pay back the money if the startup fails.

But, there’s another source of funding that’s more traditional — and potentially riskier: the small business loan.

Small business loans are a more traditional way of getting financing, which means they may be easier for some startups to get than venture capital, which can be a long and arduous process.

They’re a great option for startups that already have some momentum and — even better — some income coming in. That’s because while ven...

Sallie Krawcheck is one of my favorite entrepreneurs I’ve met in 2017, after many years following her career as one of the most senior women on Wall Street. A 2002 Fortune Magazine cover put her face as the hope of trust on Wall Street with a headline: “The Last Honest Analyst.”

Indeed, she was fired in 2008 from Citi because she wanted to bank to reimburse clients for bad investments that were the bank’s fault. Or as she put it in an on stage interview in 2016, “I was fired for being a woman,” because women are more focused on relationships and long-term outcomes than men on Wall Street.

What do you do when you reach the pinnacle of your career– farther than almost any other woman in Wall Street has climbed– and then get fired for doing th...

For busy startup teams, the name of the game — today more than ever — is productivity.

FitStars CEO and co-founder Mike Maser sums it up perfectly: “When you’re building a vision, a team and a product all at once, time is your ultimate currency. Every day presents both the opportunity to break ground and the risk of losing ground. At the end of the day I’d trade anything for an extra hour to ensure we’ve taken a step forward.”

And when you’re a startup, working at the breakneck speed of startups, it’s only natural that things start falling through the cracks. Social media gets neglected, correspondence goes unresponded-to. Every startup has a laundry list of items they should be doing but aren’t — or things they are doing, but could be doi...

Many retailers are looking to establish an international e-commerce presence, whether sourcing goods from abroad or selling goods in a new country. Research from Pitney Bowes found that an impressive two-thirds of consumers have made an international purchase, and almost a third do so once a month or more. DHL has predicted a 25 percent increase in cross-border retail volumes between 2015 and 2020, amounting to a hefty $900 billion market.

It’s natural for retailers to try to cut out a piece of this pie, but my experience at eBay and Tophatter has taught me that it typically requires a substantial investment. Establishing cross-border trade takes trial and error — getting it right almost always requires making lots of mistakes along the way...

Some entrepreneurs sail blissfully into the sunset after their first big payday. Others — like us — can’t imagine anything more boring. Instead, we thrive on constantly risking it all to build something out of nothing. This condition of serial entrepreneurship is what I call “one-and-not-done” syndrome. We know it will be hard, if not seemingly impossible, and there will be times when we will be overwhelmed with frustration. In spite of that, we know the journey is worth it.

If you’re this special breed of entrepreneur, I feel both sorry and happy for you. More than anything, I welcome you to the club.

There is a magic to what we do as entrepreneurs. We can create a thriving business almost out of nothing. Is there anything more magical tha...