It’s a key buzzword of our time. What worrying over ‘The Age of Distraction’ really reveals is our great anxiety about maintaining focus and meaningful interactions, when we’re saturated with opportunities for immediate and trivial communications.

In 2017, we commonly understand that this ‘saturation anxiety’ is inextricable from our modern relationship to smartphones. One recent study shows that the average 18–33 year old checks their smartphone a shocking 85 times a day, while another reveals that the average attention span has fallen a third since 2000 (or around the time of the mobile revolution.) Clearly, any present-day solution to these problems has to take into account the smartphone question.

But distraction anxieties have been on...

There's no paycheck in starting companies. It's the finishing part that matters.

I say this because many of us simply love the thrill and idea of starting another startup. There's always this thought — "Boy, if I could just launch this one idea that I can't stop thinking about (while forgoing my existing startup), it'll be amazing!"

Here's where the logic in that breaks down over, and over, and over.

It's Gonna Cost us 7-10 Years to be Right or Wrong

Every single time we start something anew, we reset the clock on how long it will take to make it successful. No matter how good we are, the maturation rate of a company will almost always take 7-10 years — if we're actually successful with it. That's the successful timeline, not the un-success...

How to Sell an Idea to a Company Without Them Stealing It

For many, coming up with an innovative idea leads to a desire to do something with it — and in the absence of knowing how to commercialize a great idea, many people jump to the conclusion that it can simply be sold to a big company. Then they worry that the big company will simply take their idea, and leave them in the dust. It’s a great story — it just tends to be a tale of fiction, on many levels.

Before We Answer the Question of a Company Stealing My Great Idea, Can I Sell My Idea to a Company at All?

I talk to thousands of startup founders, inventors, creatives, engineers, and other ideating and innovating types every year.

At least 100 times a year I'm asked "Ryan, I've got this gre...

Most startups find their first lawyers via their personal network.

“I know a guy who knows a guy.” — Saul Goodman

That’s how I started, too.

My co-founder and I got an intro to Orrick who temporarily delayed our first $10,000 of legal fees until we raised a seed round.

The first $10,000 included our company’s legal structure, incorporation, cap table, and our first convertible notes.

It was definitely more expensive than it had to be.

From there, my co-founder and I personally handled a lot of the duplicate work for our seed round raise, as well as drafted our own legal documents with help from free legal document templates online.

That saved us around $40,000 if we were going by Orrick’s rates ($200-$800/hour).

The other $60,000 was saved...

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.

Why would you want to use venture capital?

Venture capital is a great option for startups that are looking to scale big — and quickly. Because the investments are fairly large, your startup has to be prepared to take that money and grow.

Advantages of working with venture capitalist firms

The biggest advantage of working with venture capital firms is that if your startup goes under — as most do — you’re no...

There are three DIFFERENT types of entrepreneurs:

1. A person who offers freelancer services

2. A person who opens a for profit company

3. A person who opens a not for profit company

You should aim to be all three types.

There’s a clear difference between an entrepreneur and a freelancer. If a freelancer takes a day off, they don’t get paid. If the freelancer is not actively putting themselves out there and being the brand and face of their services, no one will give them work. The freelancer is the company. On the other hand, the person who has started a company has some ability to leave for a few days, weeks, or months, get paid for that time, and come back to a still functioning company.

Each side has clear pros and cons. Hiring staff i...

Startup culture has gone from glorifying victory to glorifying effort.

"Hustle Porn" has become more and more popular, particularly on social media, where would-be champions of entrepreneurship proclaim their insane personal sacrifices to the Gods of Startups. We're constantly wooed with tales of Founders putting in insane hours, risking it all, and coming away with the spoils of success to show for it.

How much of this is really a celebration of hard work and is how much is just the equivalent of giving ourselves a Participation Award for effort?

"I just put in 100 hours this week!"

Let's start by debunking the myth that working 100 hours in a week is somehow a victory to be lauded — it's not. The intention is that we're SO dedicated to ou...

Continuing in Phase One of a four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

• Part 1 - Startup Bootstrapping

• Part 2 - Debt as Startup Capital

• Part 3 - Equity Funding for Startups

• Part 4 - Convertible Debt ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

Let's dive in!

What is convertible debt?

Convertible Debt (or a “Convertible Note”) is often used as a method for making an equity financing investment. Unlike regular equity financing investments, though, Convertible Debt includes terms like an Interest Rate, Maturity Date, and Valuation Cap - which we’ll explain here as to how they play a role in a Convertible note.

Convertible Debt is essentially a mash-up of debt financing and eq...

As entrepreneurs, we identify problems in the market, think up potential solutions and jump right into building a product. Sadly, we often skip the most important part of building a startup — customer validation.

As entrepreneurs, why do we make this mistake over and over again?

Our instincts are to focus on tactical work that is within our control. Building a product is heads-down, tangible work that can be done day and night without any outside dependencies slowing us down. We open our laptops and start designing and coding. But, we get so caught up in our passion for building that we lose sight of the target customer’s perspective.

Why should you validate your startup idea before you build?

Many founders brush aside the importance of ea...

As a Founder, no one really understands WTF we do other than another Founder. Our lives are basically attending a bunch of events where the conversation goes something like this:

Friend: "So, how is that startup thing you're doing?"

Founder: "It's going well (not true), but our burn rate is pretty significant and I don't know if we'll be able to raise another round of cash."

Friend: "Oh, OK. So what is it that you do again?"

Does this sound familiar? Look, I've been a startup Founder for nearly 30 years and to this day most of my family thinks "I do something with computers." This is pretty standard fare, but for first-time Founders, it often feels like this bizarre version of the Matrix that we're living in where we're the only people that...