What is a private investor?

The short answer: A private investor is a person or company that invests their own money into a company, with the goal of helping that company succeed and getting a return on their investment.

The long answer: The field of private investment is more varied than the short answer might make it seem at first. It's important to note that while some types of private investors may be from firms that focus solely on investments — like VC firms and angel investors — they are never from banks (for example, SBA bank loans).

The four main types of private investors

a. Friends and family

Family and Friends are often the first private investors that startups and small businesses turn to. They're a great resource for seed funding a...

Don’t miss out! Check out the previous editions here:

–Getting Your Idea Going: There is no perfect idea
–Getting Your Idea Going: Popular Excuses for Not Starting
–Getting Your Idea Going: When to Jump Ship
–Getting Your Idea Going: Don’t Quit your Day Job
–Getting Your Idea Going: Share your Idea with Everyone

Long before you set up shop and hang your shingle, your job as a Founder is to spend as many cycles as you can validating whether your business idea even merits a logo.

Validating your business idea isn’t a dark art. It’s literally asking people whether they would use or buy what you’d make.

The challenge is: How exactly do you go about doing that? Since most Founders are only validating a business idea for their first time, they d...

In Silicon Valley, where it costs next to nothing to build a company based on just software and a clever business model, some people still make hardware. Physical goods. Things that have to be manufactured, boxed up, shipped, plugged in. Things that break.

It might seem that the economics of making hardware are at odds with the cycle of easy money and fast startups, but there are still people who think that hardware is a good business because it is so difficult.

One of those people is Nick Weaver, the 28-year-old founder of eero, a company that has turned the un-sexy world of WiFi routers on its head. Before he started his company, he was the guy at his family house who kept the network equipment up and running. Often this meant nerdy netw...

Growth expert Steve Patti joined us for a Clarity Live webinar last week to share some of his key lessons for growth. We’re sharing his top tips to keep you on the right track for startup success.

Steve’s three steps for startup growth are outlined below.

Step One: Understand the Approach for Becoming Customer-Centric

Get the Story Right: Be clear about why buyers should care about what you have to sell. Nail your positioning statement and then quantify it in terms of business outcomes that matter to customers.

Apply It: Once the brand positioning is defined and quantified, apply it to your messaging strategy, content production, lead generation tactics, and in your sales process so that you become your positioning.

Keep It Relevant: Audit ...

Owning a startup, to many, is the epitome of the American dream. Who doesn’t pine the work day away thinking about being their own boss, escaping the hamster wheel of being a salaried employee or clock puncher, and making your own destiny?

However, one area where may new entrepreneurs and small business owners fall short is dealing with the law and regulations. Typically, new business owners starting out have not had to worry about legal issues in their past jobs; now however, at the helm of your own company, that lack of knowledge can be detrimental.

Ignorance of the law can inhibit your company’s growth, expose you, your employees, and your customers to significant liability risk, and even put you into legal jeopardy if you run too far a...

Just like there are many different kinds of capital round raises for businesses in all stages of growth, there are a variety of crowdfunding types. Which crowdfunding method an entrepreneur selects depends on the type of product or service they offer and their goals for growth.

The three primary types of crowdfunding are donation-based, rewards-based, and equity crowdfunding. This guide looks primarily at rewards-based and equity crowdfunding.

1. Donation-Based Crowdfunding

Broadly speaking, it’s correct to think of any crowdfunding campaign in which there is no financial return to the investors or contributors as donation-based crowdfunding.

Common donation-based crowdfunding initiatives include fundraising for disaster relief, charities...

Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital through the collective effort of friends, family, customers, and individual investors. This approach taps into the collective efforts of a large pool of individuals — primarily online via social media and crowdfunding platforms — and leverages their networks for greater reach and exposure.

Crowdfunding is a rapidly growing industry. Below, we explore key statistics including the average raise sizes, the impact marketing has on average raise, and the underlying demographics driving crowdfunding.

KEY CROWDFUNDING STATISTICS

Crowdfunding has Raised A LOT of Money

What may have seemed like a niche way to raise money at first is now a major force in fundraising. Worldwide, companies and individuals ha...

We all love to act like we’re reinventing the wheel here in Startup Land. And, sometimes, (maybe even a lot of the time), we are. The startup world has dramatically changed how the business world operates: from company perks to customer service to everyone suddenly thinking that an open plan office is less oppressive than one with cubicles.

(Spoiler alert: It’s not.)

We’ve also invented a new understanding around the stages of a startup business. Granted, it’s not a total reinvention of the business stage wheel — maybe “evolution” is a better descriptor for how we’ve come to determine the stages of a startup. But there are parts of this “new model” that are certainly unique to our particular way of doing things. And one of those parts is th...

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 ...