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Startups set tons of goals, and most are focused on what we want the business to achieve. But sometimes the most important goals to set are the things we DON'T want the business to do!

When we founded Startups.com, we had lots of experience in previous startups doing things we loathed.

This time around, we set out to not only build a startup we loved, but an environment dedicated to avoiding things we couldn’t stand.

What did you never want to do again?

We began by listing all of the things we never wanted to do again like:

• "Never working with jerks"
• "Never creating any situation where we can be told what to do"
• "Never letting our startup come before our family"

Among others.

Itemizing everything you absolutely don't want to do again ...

Crowdfunding at a glance

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.

How is crowdfunding different from other types of finance?

Crowdfunding is essentially the opposite of the mainstream approach to business finance. Traditionally, if a person want to raise capital to start a business or launch a new product, they would need to pack up their business plan, market research, and prototypes, and then shop their idea around to a limited pool or wealthy indiv...

Getting an angel investor meeting is one of the high points of being a founder. After all, tracking down one of these illusive investors can be a serious hassle. But don’t worry — we’ve got you covered on how to find angel investors, how to get an angel investor meetings, and what to do once you’re in the room.

What is an angel investor?

Angel investors are typically high net worth individuals who invest 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 startup financing needs of a company and their larger capital needs later on.

Where do you find angel investors?

If you want to [find angel investors](https://www.sta...

What's the least we need as Founders to be happy?

For as much time as we invest in building our startups to achieve our goals, we spend shockingly little time in identifying what those goals actually mean. The danger in not defining our minimum viable happiness goals is that we wind up hoping to "find happiness" but never really defining how to get there.

And that's a pretty big problem when we're in the early stages of building a startup when very little helps fill our "happiness meter."

It's easy to make big, lofty, far away goals, but frankly, that's pretty useless right now. What we need to do is identify the shortest term, minimum goals that will make us happy so that we do everything in our power to get there as quickly as possible.

What's the worst equity holder we could possibly have in our cap table? The one who isn't even here any longer.

We all know this, and yet for generations, we've built cap tables loaded with "absentee landlords" who provide no ongoing value but reap all the benefit of those that continue to drive the ship. Until recently the notion of "dead equity" has been just accepted and rarely challenged, leaving those that still work for the company to carry those that don't.

I'd like to poke a giant, trident-sized hole in this argument once and for all. And for my fellow Founders who are dealing with this issue at present, or soon will be, I want to provide you with some ammunition toward what will invariably be a tough and painful conversation.

Great...

Women are starting businesses at impressive rates — but they’re still not getting as much money to fund those new businesses and startups as men are.

According to research from Kaufman, 40 percent of first time entrepreneurs in the United States are women. Even more impressive? The number of women-run businesses in the US is growing at twice the rate of man-owned businesses.

But women aren’t getting nearly as much money for those businesses as men are. In the startup world, women founders got only 2 percent of VC funding in 2017.

That means women are forced to look to other money sources when they’re looking to launch a startup or small business. And many are looking specifically for business loans for women.

However, there aren’t actually...

As a startup reviewer, not a week goes by when I’m not introduced to a new solution intent on burying the spreadsheet forever. Like weeds, however, spreadsheets keep turning up.

That comparison may sound unfair, but, aside from email, it’s hard to think of a more reviled tool than the spreadsheet. And maybe it’s time to let go of our loathing. After all, if spreadsheets have enough inherent value that we continue to use them, couldn’t they be improved instead of abandoned? Is it possible for us to move beyond regarding the spreadsheet as a necessary evil?

If you’re thinking it would take no less than magic to invoke such a change of heart, you’re close to the mark. The Magic Spreadsheet, developed by HEAT Intelligence, uses a dash of AI sor...

Note: Last updated: July 26, 2018

What are the best startup tools of 2018? A great startup idea is exciting, but let’s be real — if that’s all you have, you don’t have much. If your startup is going to go from idea to reality to acquisition, you’re going to need a lot of help along the way. And while some of that help will come from humans — like, you know, your team and your investors and your mom when you call her, crying — others will come from startup tools.

Startup tools are tools created to help startups (and yes, traditional businesses) succeed. They’re almost all online, as that’s where we conduct most of our business in Startup Land. They’re also almost always startups themselves — the ecosystem of startups that were created speci...

The end of the calendar year is an extremely busy time for most entrepreneurs and business leaders. From the months of October-December, most of us are busy converting new customers, fulfilling last-minute orders, launching special holiday campaigns and offers, and trying to drive as much business as we can before the new year.

In addition, a lot of us spend the last few months of the year evaluating successes and failures, adjusting budgets, and deciding how teams will grow or shrink in the year ahead.

It’s one of the most taxing times of the year for anyone managing a business.

It’s also the time of year when it’s easiest to neglect friendships, personal hobbies, and family life.

When business is booming and you’re quickly approaching...

In the startup world, we like to think of customer experience as this mystical, ineffable thing: a magical alchemy that happens at the intersection of our product and our audience.

And the thing is – it is. When the right product finds the right audience with the right problem at the right time, the result really is magical.

Some people will try to tell you can’t systematize magic. But those people have never been to Hogwarts. Or Startups.co.

To quote the old business idiom, “People make processes. Processes make a business.” Putting a process around your customer journey doesn’t destroy the magic of customer experience – it makes it better. When you systematize your customer experience, you turn customer delight into a process you can rep...