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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...

Startup founders need to be aware of the impact of "quiet quitting" at a startup.

• Quiet quitting refers to when employees stop doing the work, but still show up for the paycheck

• It's a manager's issue, not an employee issue

• Employers have little visibility over their teams like they used to in offices, but that's not really the issue

Quiet Quitting isn't a New Phenomenon

Employees Quiet quitting has been around since the dawn of work, but remote work has made it increasingly difficult for employers to see the warning signs.

To manage and prevent quiet quitting, employers must focus on creating an environment where employees feel supported, valued, and heard, with clear expectations set ahead of time that is regularly followed up on. Creating ...

WHAT IS AN LLC?

LLC means “limited liability corporation,” which is a type of business structure that creates a legal entity for the business that is separate from the business owner(s), meaning that the owner(s) are usually not personally liable for the company’s debts or lawsuits. Other common business entity structures such as corporation, general partnership, or sole proprietorship do not offer the same protections.

LLCs, which can be owned by one person (a single-member LLC) or more than one person (a multiple-member LLC), are essentially hybrid entities that combine the asset protection of a corporation with the flow-through taxation benefits of a partnership or sole proprietorship.

LLCs are a popular business entity type for new and...

You know as a startup founder that it takes a lot of time, energy, and skill just to get the train to leave the station.

School didn’t cover things like sourcing and vetting manufacturers and suppliers, handling customs for international business, marketing, customer onboarding, developing consumer and wholesale funnels, or payroll taxes.

And if they did, it was glossed-over textbook knowledge, not necessarily practical information meant for real-world application.

As you’re building your business, you’ve got to adapt, learn new habits, and teach yourself things you never thought you would spend time learning – let alone trying to master.

That’s just the way it is, whether you’re a cash-strapped startup or you’ve got deep-pocketed investors...

There are tons of famous Founders who have built world-changing companies in less than 40 hours per week — I just can't name a single one.

I'm not talking about the later stages when a company is already successful. I'm talking about the "garage band years" when it's just the Founder(s) doing every possible job and scraping to get a single paying customer.

The idea is that we can simply put in our 40 hours, work really hard, then turn it all off and live a regular life. Which sounds awesome. So why is it that every time we hear the origin story of a Founder, it's always the same — they worked insane hours for an insane amount of time to get to an incredible outcome?

Time is Money

Let's start with the correlation of hours to our success and...

Getting taken seriously as a Founder is real work.

It's not some entitlement that's handed to us when we've achieved some career milestone. No matter who we are, we all have to fight for our ability to get taken seriously.

Why do I need to work so hard, shouldn't people reserve judgment?

That would be fantastic, but the world just doesn't work that way. Especially among Founders whose credibility is tested on so many fronts — from acquiring customers, to pitching investors to hiring staff.

Our ability to establish our credibility early and often is critical to our success from the moment we found the company.

How can I change the way I present myself in a room?

Believe it or not, body language sends huge signals.

A well-presented Founder ...

There's a more implicit social contract at a startup, which says that if our teams are going to kill themselves and take on risk to build something amazing with us, they rightfully expect some rewards for that risk. Let's take money off the table — because anyone can pay money and we all understand that.

What payback do our employees want that wasn't in their offer letter?

We Owe Them Our Attention

Nothing sucks worse than not being heard. We can almost map every major problem back to someone genuinely feeling like what they have to say just never really had an ear. The biggest casualty to startup growth is internal communication, but we're not really just talking about meetings and Slack messages. We're talking about folks no longer having...

“The trouble with not having a goal is that you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score.”
~Bill Copeland

It’s not exactly a groundbreaking claim to say that setting business goals is crucial to the success of any company. But sometimes, as Founders, we get so focused on the big-picture goals we have for our company, we forget about another set of goals we should be setting: goals for our team.

Trying to run a company without setting team goals is kind of like a football coach sending their team onto the field without a game plan. You may score a touchdown, sure – but the more likely outcome is chaos, confusion, and a whole lot of hurt.

The big-picture goals you set for your company may be the roadmap that shows yo...

What is company culture?

Despite how obsessed the startup world is with company culture, there’s no singular definition we can all turn to. But while it’s difficult to put a dictionary definition on company culture, there are really two parts to it: Philosophical and practical.

On a philosophical level, company culture is the intangible atmosphere of your company. Some people call it the “personality” or the “glue that holds everyone together” or even the “soul.” It’s as much a feeling — of belonging, of shared purpose, even of similar ways of dress — as it is an aspiration for the entire company to contribute to.

“The truth is that culture – on its own – is not the thing that will bring you success in whatever way you may define it for you...

When you’re starting a new company, customer service is everything. Startups make or break based on their earliest customers and if you can’t get those early adopters to stick around as you’re muddling through the inevitable mistakes that happen in an early-stage startup, you’re going to end up in the huge pile of startups that fail. Additionally, traction is one of the most important factors that VCs examine when they’re deciding whether or not to give a company money. Bad customer support equals lost customers, which means crappy traction.

But good customer support? That can make all the difference.

“At HappyFox, we once won a deal with a Fortune 50 company based purely on the quick response time they received,” HappyFox founder Shalin Ja...