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“It all comes back to our neanderthal brain craving the structure of a story.”

–Donna Griffit, The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for your Startup Investor Pitch Deck

Feeling self-confident that you could talk about your company to anyone? How ‘bout Grandma or your little niece? Could you hold their interest, make them understand quickly and clearly? Talk about a tough pitch!

The importance of startup storytelling has become a hot topic. Awareness is on the rise. However, most Founders have yet to master the science and art of storytelling. Why is it so hard? What are the key ingredients to winning your audience’s attention? Who does it well?

Special guest Donna Griffit joins Startups Live to share her storytelling expertise and to help Founder’s avo...

Welcome to Phase One of a four-part Splitting Equity Series make sure to read Introduction - Early Startup Equity — Getting it Right before continuing on if you haven’t already.

Phase One - Startup Equity — Avoiding Early Mistakes ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

Phase Two - How Startup Equity Works

Phase Three - How to Split Equity

Phase Four - Equity Management

We are excited to guide you through your equity-splitting experience. Let's continue!

Before we make a single equity split decision about co-founders or any of our founding teams, please read this section carefully. Nearly every bad decision startup founders make in setting up their equity splits is contained here.

This lesson is a primer on splitting equity among two founders or more and how to have a...

“It’s the same as having the proper form with lifting weights; if you don’t have the right form, you’re going to hurt yourself.”

–Joshua Davidson, Six Customer Service Principles To Abide By

Taking care of people. It’s a calling, an art. It’s a service. It can also be a way of life, company culture, and doing business. Joshua Davidson is somewhat of an evangelist on the topic of customer service, preaching the principles of outstanding customer service with the conviction of a man who has religion.

And his principles, the quality and clarity of his thinking – are all of the highest level. The same can be said for the questions posed to him during this Startup Live chat, as well as this discussion on customer service as a whole. Given the u...

During the early days of my first startup I stumbled upon a huge liability that was killing us quickly — me.

What's funny is no one else needed to have this discovery. The rest of the organization had figured out long ago that I was immature, combative, prone to anxious tirades, and generally a pain in the ass to work with.

And looking back, I'm probably being kind.

As a Founder (and CEO), every single one of those idiosyncrasies becomes amplified a hundred-fold because my liabilities to the organization become rooted in every decision we make, every interaction we have, and the entire morale of the company.

If we don't exercise some serious self realization — and do it quickly — we may be creating one of the biggest hurdles our organiza...

When we sell our startup, it's not the simple financial transactions we all think it is. While we zero in the wealth event and the "freedom," we rarely take stock of the significant cost that comes with it.

Our startups aren't just about an income stream — it's not just a job. It's a part of us, something we created from scratch and worked tirelessly to bring into this world (I'm really trying to avoid a child-birthing analogy, out of respect to any woman who's delivered an actual child!).

When we think about selling, we need to think about all of the things that are going to be taken away, not just the dollars and freedoms that will be added. We often find that our startups provide a much deeper reward than what just having a job implies ...

What is an angel investor?

Angel investors are typically high net worth individuals who make investments very early into the formation of a new startup company, usually in exchange for convertible debt or equity. The role of angel investors serves as a critical bridge between the early stage startup financing needs of a company and their larger capital needs later on from venture capitalists, corporate investors, all the way to becoming a publicly traded company.

Who can be angel investors?

In order to be an angel investor, a person does not have to be an accredited investor. However, a lot of angel investors are accredited investors.

In order to be an accredited investor, according to the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC), a person must:

• Hav...

“When we first launched things were going gangbusters. But since then, things have kind of flat-lined. The business seems stalled. What do we do from here?"

Is it a blip or a trend?

Part of the challenge with running a startup is that we simply don't have any history of whether past performance was the future of our business or "just a really good quarter.”

For this reason, it's hard to tell whether we're really stalled until enough time has gone by that we can see the writing on the wall.

We imagine a "successful startup" always has a stout growth trend that runs "up and to the right" on every chart. But that's actually not really true.

Yes, there are some standout companies that smash records, but most companies grow slowly over a long ...

I know this blog post is going to get some electronic tomatoes thrown in my direction….. Meh… *cue shoulder shrug*. That said, here comes the first leadership truth:

1. You look bad when you chronically call out sick.

When we were a company of 10 people, no one ever called out sick. I even had a policy at the time where I paid for sick days that no one took advantage of. For real, never — It was just never an issue for almost two years. I then upboarded my first manager and that single move of one level separation between me as the owner and the employees created an environment where we had people calling out sick left and right. I think it was some sense of “Oh, well now it is a “company” and not just a person I am loyal to”. That sense o...

Looking for a business grant for veterans? Here’s the thing: Grants are usually open for a set period of time, after which that money is no longer accessible.

As a result, it wouldn’t actually be possible to list out business grants for veterans, because by the time you read this, they may or may not still be available. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great financing options out there for vets, like a VA small business loan!

First, we’re going to take a look at the federal government’s database for all small business grants. Then, we’re going to look at some government and private loans for veterans and other small business owners, as well as some veteran-specific training programs and resources.

Remember: Just because you don’t se...

When Uber first entered the saturated world of on-demand food delivery, it wasn’t easy. Especially considering how crowded the space already is (consider Seamless, Postmates, Grubhub, and now Amazon). Still, UberEats took off, offering its menus in 120 markets around the world in just three years; it even earned more than Uber’s original ride-sharing platform.

Uber makes it look easy, right? But starting a business or transitioning into an already packed industry can be difficult, regardless of whether the company is a well-known conglomerate or a brand-new startup. To begin, business leaders should learn who their customers are — even before marketing. You’ll never attract an audience if you don’t know who your target is (or what their nee...