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Everything around us is changing—how we communicate and express ourselves, how we connect with other people, how we order food, how we live our lives.

When it comes to how work is done, everything is changing as well. At Servixio, we decided to make our company a 100 per cent virtual company—from top to bottom.

Why did we do that? We strongly believe that remote work has lots of benefits to our clients and people.

Here are the top 10 benefits of remote work:

1.) Remote workers are more productive

Remote workers are lazy and they will just slack around, right? Well, wrong! According to a ConnectSolutions survey, 30 per cent of workers said that they accomplished more in less time when they started working remotely.

Working remotely can avoid...

That's not how this works. We don't get the benefit of sitting on our thrones and commanding our armies until much, much later in life — and in many cases, never. What we are guaranteed along the way is a wraith-like drain on our life force (D&D reference there, fellow nerds) in every possible facet.

What we need to understand, and accept, is that our startup's future can very easily come at the expense of everything we hold dear. It's very much hard-coded into how the Founder Journey works, and damn, do we pay a lot of bills along the way.

First, We Pay With Our Savings

Long before we raise money or earn some revenue, 100% of our "income" is just our personal savings. We use terms like "sweat equity" as if working for free somehow magicall...

As Founders, so many of us have joined this marathon because we believed there was our own version of "happiness" on the other side of it. The problem for many Founders, once they've "made it" is that they don't realize that money was never going to buy more happiness. In fact, it wasn't the problem they were solving for, to begin with.

Think of it like getting a big, honking bruise. In this case, that bruise is a metaphor for debt. When you have a bruise, you're constantly worried about it — it's super painful. So we think about how great it will be when it goes away. And eventually, it heals (we have some money). But all we did was get rid of the pain, we don't actually become "more healthy" than we were before.

The same goes for debt. Wh...

I know a lot. Or rather, I know a lot more than I should naturally know. Specifically, I know a lot about people before I meet them – not through clairvoyance, but through artificial intelligence.

There is nothing strategic in this post. Just some practical suggestions about three tools I am using – Accompany, Notion.ai, and Sende.rs. – to artificially enhance my intelligence.

As I have written about before, I spend a lot of my day networking with entrepreneurs and VCs about their ventures and prospective investments. And sometimes I lose track. Where did I connect with this executive? or, Who asked me to speak with this founder? I no longer lose track. In fact, I am usually ahead of the curve. Here’s how:

Accompany is a tool from one of l...

This is a question that I’ve been struggling with for years. Through my life as an entrepreneur, I’ve had the opportunity to be a TEDx speaker. I have good friends that have organized tech conferences themselves, and I’ve obviously been an attendee of a fair share of events and even part been of those Startup battle segments.

So, are tech conferences worth it? That depends on the expectations you have going in.

With time, I’ve learned that the best thing you can do is set accurate expectations, and have a clear action plan in place as to what you want to accomplish at the event.

Here are some of the goals we’ve set at Slidebean when investing time/money in attending a tech conference, and mostly succeeded at:

1. Networking: meeting relevant p...

In a world of billion dollar exits and absurd funding rounds, startup Founders have lost sight of what financial success really is.

Don’t get me wrong… Having billions of dollars is amazing. But, you know what else is cool? Making a million flipping dollars. Especially when you don’t have a million flipping dollars!

Let’s take the time to recalibrate how we think about startup success — and more specifically — Founder success. When we get to the point where we can only think of “success” as some astronomical, arbitrary outcome, we’re headed down a very dangerous path that affects our startup, our finances and — if we’re being honest — our health.

“But a $1 million business isn’t very big.”

No, a million dollar business isn’t very big. ...

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...

It’s a common locker room scene: Before the big game, the team scrutinizes video of its upcoming opponent, trying to suss out the other team’s biggest strengths and weaknesses. Companies analyze their competitors, too, but they rarely turn that same analytical eye inward. That’s a mistake.

Why? Because, quite frankly, your company’s weaknesses can do far more damage than your competitors, and your strengths are reminders that you have the capacity to improve in other areas.

Think of it this way: How can you contrast your organization with another if you have no idea what value you bring to the table or where you stand? It’s time for an internal audit.

Evaluating Your Company in 3 Steps

Step 1: Conduct a Thorough Internal Assessment

Conduct...

Congratulations! You've made it to the end of our four-part Funding Series:

Phase One - Structuring a Fundraise

Phase Two - Investor Selection

Phase Three - The Pitch

Phase Four - Investor Outreach

• Part 1 - Investor Outreach

• Part 2 - Investor Introductions: How to Get Them

• Part 3 - The Investor Email Pitch

• Part 4 - How to Contact Investors ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

Let’s dive in!

So you've got your list of angel investors, venture capitalists, random private investors, and even your rich Aunt and you're ready to blast all of them with your email pitch...

Please don't! Step.. away.. from.. the.. keyboard!

Most Founders (and we help thousands) wind up tanking their entire fundraising process the moment they hit the "send" button to potential investors. That'...

The Problem Slide is the single most important slide in our entire Pitch Deck. If we can’t convince an investor to care about our Problem Statement Slide then our Solution Slide isn't going to matter to potential investors.

Everything Hinges on the Problem Slide.

Our pitch deck Problem Slide is the North Star for a winning pitch deck. Our Problem Slide will be what we map every aspect of our investor pitch deck too, from our Competition slide to our Revenue Traction, to our Marketing Plan. The best pitch deck examples absolutely nail the problem slides every time.

How do Most Investors think about the Problem Slide?

Before we begin building the Problem Slide for our pitch deck, let’s think about this slide from the investor’s perspective. This ...