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Fail fast. Fail forward. Those are just two of the mantras you’ll see hanging in startup offices and incubators across the globe. In the startup world, a failure is considered a learning opportunity, at the least; a feather in the cap of the Founder, at best. We fetishize failure. We normalize it.

But as much as we talk a good game about failure, the reality is that failing sucks. Just as no one goes into their wedding day planning for divorce, no one starts a company thinking, “Yeah, this one will just be my starter. I’ll get it right next time.” No wants to fail, and yet the majority of startups do fail.

According to an examination of startup businesses (by which they mean new companies in general) in the United States conducted by Stati...

Crowdfunding is not only a popular strategy for getting a product or startup off the ground, but also an increasingly viable one.

New legislation lets startups raise capital from the general public. Companies can now receive up to $1 million from non-accredited investors, prompting many businesses to enter the arena and, ultimately, attract more issuers.

What’s more, equity crowdfunding companies like Fundable make the process really easy for companies to raise money on their platforms, which has led to a big expansion in the space.

If you want to reach and inspire the crowdfunding community, video is a great medium. In fact, campaigns that utilize video crowdfunding pitches garner four times more funding than those that don’t.

While the in...

Putting a value on your business can be a tricky enterprise, but it’s not as puzzling as some would have you believe.

The real hurdles come as you attempt to increase that value. What improvements should you make? Where should your priorities lie?

Steady, dependable growth relies on four interrelated factors: earnings, risk, growth prospects, and transferability.

Earnings

Buyers make purchases to see returns on their investments; existing earnings are the most concrete predictors of potential ROI.

If you’re not making money, your value will generally be lower. Potential money is good, but money in hand goes a long way in proving the viability of your business model.

Risk

The less risk in your business’s future, the higher its value.

A few y...

Interest in content marketing has exploded over the past decade, with good reason. It works.

A study from Conductor showed that education content makes consumers 131% more likely to buy. But it’s not just for B2C, with B2B brands seeing value, too. And it works, for less. One estimate claims content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, while generating approximately 3 times as many leads.

Sounds like an easy decision to get on board with.

What is content marketing?

Before we dive into how to do content marketing, let’s take a step back to rehash what it is. We’ve heard all about content marketing and how awesome it can be for your business (see above!). But let’s be clear on what we are talking about.

Content marketing is st...

Fundraising is incredibly easy. You just call a few investors, tell them how great your idea is, and they write you a check. If your idea is really good, they don’t even ask for equity. They’re just so excited to be a part of your company they can’t wait to give you money.

OK, that’s not true at all.

Companies that successfully raise capital do so because they convince others that their idea is going to be a winner.

The truth is that fundraising is hard. Most people try and fail, no matter how great their preparation, their perseverance, or their idea. That’s because there are far more people looking for capital than there are people writing checks, and therefore an entrepreneur needs to do everything possible to ensure they can successfull...

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...