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When you’re a startup founder, there are certain materials you’re going to work with again and again. Balance sheets, term sheets, customer journey maps – get comfortable with these. You’re going to be seeing a lot of them.

Another startup stalwart you’ll definitely want to have down cold: the landing page.

Landing pages are the ultimate utility players of startup marketing. Want to validate an idea? You need a landing page. Need to build an email list? You need a landing page. Got a new product you need to tell people about? Seems like maybe you should think about creating a landing page.

You get the picture: if you’re starting a company, you’re going to need a landing page at some point, if you haven’t already. So you might as well pop th...

“Without a clear vision to evolve, you will never break free of the ‘start-up’ mentality.”

–Hayley Winter, How to Evolve a Startup Into a Successful Business

How do you go from being a startup to a viable business to a very successful business? Where do we draw the lines between these classifications for companies? Founders from around the world set out to answer these sticky questions in Startups Live.

Haley Winter tried to lay the groundwork for erecting a successful venture. Some of the materials incorporated into her architectural scheme included a business plan, the startup mentality, making yourself visible and profitable, devoting resources properly.

Her article also covered the extremely difficult terrain of trying to decide when a...

Access is power, and customers have never had more access than they do today. The Internet brings products and services worldwide right to a customer’s fingertips — and simultaneously brings the customer’s experience to the world. With an abundance of choice, dissatisfied (or bored) customers can brand-hop with ease. And with a tweet or a Facebook Live post, customers can make or break a company’s carefully crafted image.

But knowledge is also power, and startups can take advantage of it. If you truly know your customer and understand what it takes to transform new customers into loyal fans, you can restore the balance of power, ensuring revenue is headed in the right direction.

Customer Experience Drives Revenue Growth

A 2016 study by For...

We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: starting a company is hard work. Growing a startup from scratch is like jumping out of an airplane and trying to make a parachute using a thread and needle as you plummet towards the earth. Needless to say, when it comes to startup growth, there’s a lot that can go wrong – as Sean Sheppard knows firsthand.

“Growth needs to be done in a way that makes it safe for humans to tell you the truth. And that requires humility and a growth mindset.”

As the co-founder of Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund and market Development Accelerator GrowthX, Sean has seen hundreds of companies come through the door. Some of those companies have gone on to big wins – and others have stalled before they even g...

Sometimes the best way to grow our startups is to spend some time doing stuff that has nothing to do with our startups!

It sounds easy to do and yet so many of us have a huge issue with getting outside our own startup bubble.

But what if we knew that time away was the key to actually making our startup grow faster?

The problem with "startup all the time"

Aside from the obvious challenges around things like burnout, being focused exclusively on our startups prevents us from getting some new perspectives that we would have otherwise missed.

Whether it's that passing thought during meditation, that interesting point another Founder made at dinner, or the inspiration we got when we were sitting on a beach staring at the sun — our time away fro...

Many startup founders find themselves taking out their first business loans as they’re working to get their company launched. But, like so many other things in the startup world, it can be really harrowing to approach first time business loans — because you haven’t done it before! So here’s your comprehensive guide to first time business loans, including what to expect, how to prep, where to find them, and how to apply.

Should startups apply for first time business loans?

Unfortunately, first time business loans can be difficult for startups to procure. That’s because while some funding sources in the startup ecosystem — like VCs and angel investors — are looking to take big risks, traditional financial institutions like banks generally ar...

Like a lot of ambitious young women, Lisa Wang, co-Founder of the female entrepreneur networking group and community SheWorx, didn’t think that her gender was holding her back — until it did. Lisa’s first career was as a US National Champion Hall of Fame gymnast, where she was surrounded by talented, competitive women. This was followed by a short-lived career as an equity research analyst right after college, but chafed in that highly-structured environment. So, like so many talented millennials before her, she turned to tech.

“I realized that the work I was doing in finance was simply not aligned with my values,” Lisa tells Startups.co. “Having creative ownership, autonomy, and making a clear impact that aligned with my personal mission w...

What is an EIN?

EIN stands for “employee identification number” and it’s the number assigned to your startup for tax purposes. Think of it like your company’s social security number. The EIN is also known as a Federal Tax Identification Number.

The EIN is nine digits in this format: XX-XXXXXXX.

Does my business need an EIN?

Most businesses do need an EIN — they’re necessary for filing taxes and for payroll. EINs are needed by employers, sole proprietors, corporations, partnerships, non-profit associations, trusts, estates of decedents, government agencies, some individuals, and some business entities. Some businesses are exempt from having an EIN, but may choose to get one anyway as having an EIN can make certain government processes simp...

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...

What is a business loan?

A business loan is an amount of money a business borrows from a financial institution, with set requirements for the amount of time it will take to pay back, as well as interest rates.

Businesses get loans in order to help them start or to fund expansion. They’re one of a range of funding options for startups.

Types of business loans for startups

There are five main types of business loans that are relevant for startups:

1. SBA small business loans
2. Business credit lines
3. Short term loans
4. Invoice financing
5. Merchant cash advances

Let’s take a closer look at each one.

SBA Small Business Loans

A SBA small business loan is a loan that is backed by the Small Business Administration (SBA).

Founded in 1953, the SBA is a fe...