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When you see about 50 investor pitch decks a week over 14 years, you see A LOT of repeat mistakes. And when you fix these decks, you see many successes.

People ask me: “How many slides should the startup pitch deck have?” Or they’re sticking to a template that forces them into something that just doesn’t work.

So is there one “right” way to do a pitch deck? I think so! But if everyone uses the same method, won’t they all look the same? The answer is a resounding no!

Buildings are built with the same idea — a foundation, frame, walls, windows, paint, etc. But each building has it’s unique characteristics. Without a proper structure, however, your building might collapse. So too, your pitch!

It’s All About The Story

So what is that elusive s...

Looking for small business grants that are geared towards immigrants and minorities? Well, you’re not the only one. Business grants are often described as “free money,” so they tend to be pretty popular.

But, here at Startups, we hate the term “free money.” It’s a word that people throw around a lot when they’re talking about grants. The reason we don’t call small business grants “free money” is because they take a lot of work to get. And there’s a lot of competition, so oftentimes that work doesn’t even result in a payday. Sure, you don’t have to pay back a small business grant the way you do a business loan — but it’s certainly not “free money.”

However, we also understand that minority business grants can really boost a startup, if they ...

Although plenty of established corporations have begun to embrace niche areas of the green movement, they’re often slow to change. Consequently, achieving true sustainability can take a long time — but it doesn’t have to. Thanks to a new breed of disruptive entrepreneurs, the majority of vertical markets are tackling green initiatives and spurring widespread interest in smarter stewardship of natural resources.

This evolutionary process toward greener values, policies, and models hasn’t been lost on stakeholders. From the consumer to the employee to the potential new hire, people universally are increasing their expectations of brands when it comes to aligning with their environmental values. Investors know this innately; even larger ones a...

A source of employee dissatisfaction is ALWAYS a lack of communication. It’s in the top three complaints your team has. I guarantee it. Your team wants more info than you give.

Inevitably you’ve tried a weekly team meeting. You put it on the calendar.

The first one was a resounding success. You had so much to say that the meeting ran into overtime.

The second meeting wasn’t bad, but the content dropped.

By the third meeting, you struggled to scrape together enough to fill the time. You shifted to monthly as a compromise.

Within four months the meeting was gone from everyone’s calendar. Or worse yet, it has continued as a painful time waster spent reviewing long to-do lists.

Think about this. For a team of 25, a one hour meeting is costing y...

In the early days of my career, my definition of success was pretty run-of-the-mill. It was all based in corporate metrics while I managed to build three profitable startups. But then my middle child, Teddy, was born with a life-threatening congenital diaphragmatic hernia, and everything changed.

My wife and I started the Incredible Teddy Foundation to help raise awareness about CDH and give financial assistance to families. After a difficult period, our son is doing well now. But his struggle brought me to completely redefine what success meant to me. No longer is it set just by business achievements, but by giving back — the classic “doing good while doing well.”

A New Foundation, a New Chapter

The experience of building a charitable fou...

What are some aspects of business travel that startup leaders absolutely must invest in to help their companies in the long run?

Almost every traveler has an opinion about what’s worth the splurge, from programs like Global Entry to more indulgent items like upgrades and private guides. But unlike individual travelers, a company can’t use a single nice suitcase or pair of comfortable shoes for all its employees’ subsequent trips, so what should a business spend money on to make travel as productive, painless, and cost-effective as possible?

Here are my top five ideas:

1. Time

The old adage is true — saving time means money in business travel. An extra hour spent working is more useful than spending that hour in the back of a taxi or at a...

David Hauser is the entrepreneur’s entrepreneur. As the Founder of two companies — Grasshopper and Chargify — that serve the needs of his fellow entrepreneurs, David has spent most of his adult life focused on creating great businesses that not only solve his community’s problems, but also provide a great living for him.

Grasshopper sells for $165M Cash and $8.6M in stocks to Citrix

If you’ve started a company in the last decade, you’ve probably heard of Grasshopper, a virtual phone system that turns existing cellphones into primary business numbers.

David and his co-Founder Siamak Taghaddos targeted startups when they launched Grasshopper because of how incredibly expensive business phone services were for budding entrepreneurs.

They knew ...

I am hard pressed to think of a company run by just a handful of people— with less than 100 million users and no revenue at its peak — that has had such a transformational impact on the consumer Web than Instagram.

Had Instagram stayed independent, it may well have wound up looking a lot like Twitter, today.

Had Twitter bought Instagram, everything would look different: Facebook struggles more with teens and mobile just after it’s IPO, and Twitter doubles down on photos/expression/celebrity and pop culture.

But instead, Facebook bought Instagram and that one move made the strongest market player way stronger than the $1 billion it “overpaid” for the asset. Not only did Instagram give Facebook youth again, celebrity, it’s first successful “m...

Question: What is one tip for organizing co-founder roles and responsibilities, and aligning co-founder job descriptions among founders?

The following answers regarding how to balance responsibilities, lay out co-founder job descriptions, and define co-founder roles and responsibilities are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC).

Embrace Co-Founder Job Descriptions

Co-founders are vital to the business but can get lost as the company evolves. We evaluate our co-founder job descriptions yearly to ensure that the written expectations are in line with the work the company needs done. Don’t be afraid to reassign co-founder roles and responsibilities so that business goals can be met.

— Robby Hill
HillSouth

Track Tasks

You shou...

Question: What is one way to take your core strengths and make them even stronger?

The following answers are provided by members of Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the world’s most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses.

Assess Subsets of Your Strengths

While you may be an excellent programmer, what are some other areas of programming where you can improve your skills? Being good in a few core areas doesn’t mean there isn’t additional learning to do.

— Nicole Munoz
Start Ranking Now

Find People to Cover for Your Weaknesses

Core competency is a ...