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Google and Facebook are tech behemoths that offer attractive salaries. But talk to an employee at either, and it’s not about salary; it’s about napping pods and car pickup. Working for a “cool” company is about the culture and the idea, not the traditional images of 401(k)s.

“Cool” means different things to different people, but it’s a safe bet that those looking for a cool startup are eyeing places that offer newfangled perks and jealousy-inducing benefits, such as telecommuting or dog-friendly workplaces. But your business doesn’t have to be cool in the buzz-worthy sense to reap the benefits.

For example, I work in the legal services industry, which might not sound very cool. But my firm, American Injury Attorney Group, went against the g...

Nancy Duarte is a pro when it comes to presentations. Not just giving presentations, but starting them, finishing them, and every step in between. Author and co-founder of Duarte Designs, Nancy Duarte is a seasoned veteran when it comes to incorporating storytelling into speaking and creating connections with an audience.

Nancy Duarte on The Importance of Knowing Your Audience

The below video is the fifth part in a series of 10 in which Nancy shares the key components to making a successful pitch using creativity, critical thinking and how important it is to know your audience. Find out what she has to say:

By this point in Nancy’s “Presentation is Everything” lesson, you know that your presentations revolve around the audience: who they a...

There's a time to get tough and keep building our startups. And there's a time to be honest about simply folding the tents.

The problem is that our own egos can rarely distinguish between the two.

We hear these (revisionist) stories of great entrepreneurs overcoming insurmountable odds to build the great companies of today, and we assume that in order to earn our own tale, we'll need to bring ourselves to the brink of destruction to do the same.

But the truth is, more often than not, the idea of running ourselves into the ground is just that: we're just killing ourselves with little upside or glory on the other side of the journey. As Founders, we need to have an honest dialog about when it's really time to put a bullet in this thing for th...

At first, it seemed like a match made in heaven. The book’s big, bold title grabbed your attention. The subtitle promised to solve one of the many challenges you’re facing right now. The glowing testimonials from CEOs and respected peers confirmed that it was the missing piece for anyone who hoped to be successful.

But by the time you got to chapter three it felt like a bad Tinder date. The author was repeating different versions of the same humorless anecdotes and displaying a brazen disregard for your time and attention span.

He was out of things to say.

You closed your eyes and whispered through clenched teeth:

“This should have been a blog post.” 😑

This is the big gripe readers have with business books — that they’re 90% fluff. They’re...

You’ve probably seen stories of the ridiculous surge in stock prices when a company adds “blockchain” to its name, but have you heard of “cloud washing?” Essentially, cloud washing is a deceptive practice in which a vendor rebrands an old product or service that relies on the internet by associating it with the cloud.

Many service providers are simply moving their clients’ on-premise software to a data center and calling it a cloud solution. In reality, there’s much more to a true cloud solution than the location of the servers.

Red Flags From Fake Cloud Providers

There are a number of warning signs that a phony cloud provider might be trying to fool you. To start with, a cloud-native provider will be eager to offer you a free trial. Typica...

I think it’s really important to have someone who can complement you and balance you, and we’ve definitely found that in each other.

It’s a good thing that there’s a lot of outdoor space next to Mike Koranda and Aaron May’s office, because their actual office is basically a closet.

“You don’t even want to know,” says Mike when I ask exactly how much square footage they have. “Twelve-by-five?” he estimates. “Six-by-ten?” Aaron offers.

So, yeah. It’s small.

Working in that close of quarters has its virtues, though. When you work, as Mike puts it, “literally on top of each other,” it’s hard not to check in with what the other person is doing.

And checking in is important for Mike and Aaron. A little over eighteen months ago, they co-founded a ...

A recent study done by for Fusion called the Massive Millennial Poll — which included 1,000 people between the ages of 18-34 — found that a firm 50 percent of millennials don’t think that there are only two genders.

Instead, people are viewing as gender and sex as two related but different things: Sex being a person’s biology (including genitals, chromosomes, and hormones) and gender being someone’s identity (including how they present themselves to the world and which pronouns they choose to use). While most people fall within the binary of “male” or “female,” there’s a growing portion of people who simply don’t.

And another cultural shift — online dating — is happening concurrently with this change in how we view gender. While online dati...

I talk to hundreds of entrepreneurs every year. It’s a privilege that provides me with extraordinary perspective on how ideas are making it to market. One of the consistent themes in startups struggling to make it out of the idea/concept phase is that they can’t get out of their own way.

While the stereotypical inventor is purported to be secretive, distrustful and reclusive, many of these behaviors—intentional or incidental—can now be observed in startup founders of all stripes. Because of the ease with which you can now reach vast audiences, doing nothing to promote or expose your idea can now be interpreted as an act of secrecy. You owe it to your idea to expose it to a potential market to determine viability.

Your idea might be great, o...

The mobile internet has been both a blessing and a curse for startups and small businesses looking to build their brands from the ground up.

Never before in history has achieving awareness and influence been so democratized. Truly any brand can have their 15 seconds of fame – or more. However, that’s also the curse. There is more noise than ever before to stand out from and drive awareness.

Therefore it’s not a surprise that when we recently asked over 500 startup & small business owners what their primary digital marketing objective was — their number one priority was to increase company and product awareness. It even beat out driving inbound leads and customers — go figure.

In order to achieve brand awareness in this new mobile-driven, ...

My grandfather usually starts his day at 5 a.m, followed by yoga in his favorite part of the lawn. Without fail he and his friends, are engaged in daily yoga practices. Back from yoga, he prepares for himself a healthy breakfast and enjoys it while reading a newspaper.

I was not an early bird—That is, until I realized how productive my days could be when following the morning rituals by observing my grandfather.

My grandfather has always been a great motivation for me to start off my day on a positive note. He believes, “morning is that time of the day which will make or break a good or a bad day”.

Rituals instill a sense of peace and builds a solid foundation for what you want to accomplish each day.

One day, my grandfather told me about ...