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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...

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.

A venture capital firm is usually run by a handful of partners who have raised a large sum of money from a group of limited partners (LPs) to invest on their behalf. The LPs are typically large institutions, like a State Teachers Retirement System or a university who are using the services of the VC to help generate big returns on their money.

The partners then have a window of 7-10 years with which to mak...

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...

As Founders, it's really hard for us to separate "startup peril” with a feeling of personal safety.

So often our apocalyptic version of what will happen with our startup gets exponentially grafted onto this nightmare scenario of our future selves.

How can I feel safe when my startup is in peril?

When things are going rough at our startup, the first step we need to take is to isolate the startup's outcome from our own.

Our startup could end horribly. We will lose any income we had. We may lose a substantial amount of our savings or net worth.

But that doesn't mean we're unsafe personally.

We're capable of creating more income (yeah, a "job"), and we won't be hungry on the side of the road. Given a single year, we can come back fighting. ...

As startups — unless you’re VC-funded — we don’t usually have the big marketing budgets that established companies have. We may not be able to drop thousands on a single ad campaign. But the good news is that we don’t have to. We have strengths we can tap into that can power our marketing and help us land customers.

One of those strengths is our ability to wow customers in ways that the big guys — with their bloated infrastructure and slow-moving cogs — just can’t.

Startups can use customer stories to illustrate how their products and services solve problems and make life wonderful, motivating potential customers to move forward in the buying journey.

How Customers Stories Boost Marketing

Customer stories, or case studies, can be used thro...

Every company starts small and it is understandable that not everything is going properly as the company is growing. Besides that organized chaos, there are some attitudes that founders and CEOs must broadcast throughout the company.

My background as an entrepreneur and as startup employee have helped me identify pain points about employee motivation (the subject was also the thesis I chose for mastering in Entrepreneurship in 2013 — find the recommendations part here in French).

To increase the rate of your success—apply the exact opposite of the 11 situations outlined below when it comes to motivating your startup employees:

1. Don’t have a vision for your company.

Failing to provide a vision reveals the pilot himself doesn’t know where t...

I had a classmate Brian in grade school that would drive teachers crazy by asking them, “Why do we have to learn this?” He wasn’t a troublemaker at all, and I think this is what unnerved the teachers most. Dealing with hell raisers was an expected part of the job, but an ordinary kid questioning how things run? Well, that could bring the whole show crashing down…

With social media, we’ve all turned into Brian, asking aloud, “Why are you showing me this?” But unlike Brian, we have the power to turn away. Stories we don’t care about? Not gonna read ‘em. Sales pitches for goods we’ve never shown any interest in whatsoever? See ya.

So, how do you reach an audience of Brians that can tune out whatever they damn well please?

Quuu is a service tha...

I think I’ve won the startup game. No, I didn’t sell my company for a billion dollars. I didn’t raise at a unicorn valuation. I’m not headlining TechCrunch Disrupt.

I won because I decided to not give a shit about any of that. I opted out. I focused on my own business and stopped worrying about what everyone else was doing.

It was the most life changing thing I ever did. And, now I’m hoping you join me.

I GREW UP WHEN I SHUT DOWN

My victory didn’t come from what I did – it came from what I stopped doing.

• I stopped paying attention to what other people posted on social media.
• I stopped worrying about what was reported in startup news.
• I stopped comparing my success to how my friends were doing.
• I stopped trying to sell people at coc...

Sara Blakely, the founder of SPANX, joined social media 5 weeks ago (Instagram to be more exact) and at the MA Conference for Women in the span of 10 minutes, she gained 2K new followers.

Wait…what? Can I do this too!? Here’s my breakdown of how she did it through the influence of public speaking and tips on how you can move the crowd to build your tribe.

On Thursday, December 8th, I’ve had the honor to be one of the few males to attend and speak at the nation’s largest conference for women, the Massachusetts Conference for Women (Yes, it was fun if you were wondering and the wifey had no objections because it was a conference. Win-win!).

In front of a sold-out audience of 11,000, Sara Blakely was interviewed by Gayle King (Co-host of CBS ...

According to research from Kaufman, 40% of first-time entrepreneurs in the United States are women.

Even more impressive? The number of women-run businesses in the US is growing at twice the rate of men-owned businesses. The rate of women starting businesses and startups throughout the country is at an all-time high.

Let’s take a closer look at women-owned businesses, including certification and funding opportunities.

What it is a woman-owned business?

In its simplest form, a women-owned business is a business owned by at least one woman.

But when it comes to qualifying for certain grants, loans, and contracts, a women-owned business is at least 51% owned by controlled, operated, and managed by a woman or women.

What is WBENC Certificatio...