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The only thing harder than making a ton of money is giving it away to family.

On paper, it sounds easy. We've finally got some dough and now we can hand it out like Robinhood to all the people in need. What could feel better than helping our family with a little extra cash?

That's until we find out what a giant tangled mess of problems it tends to create. What we are thinking about is how helpful we can be, but what we're not thinking about — and where most Founders live in regret — is what a can of worms we open from here on out.

It. Never. Ends.

The problem with giving away money once is that once we open those floodgates, they are nearly impossible to close. All it takes is a single act of kindness to send those gates crashing open.

Here...

If there’s one thing that’s more available than ever for founders in 2018, it’s advice. Not a day goes by without someone recommending a book, blog, podcast or conference that I can’t miss, or someone I ‘have to meet’.

On the other hand, we all know that the secret to success is not as simple as following instructions from [insert your favorite unicorn]’s playbook and just doing what those before you have done successfully.

Perhaps this explains why it is so easy to forget the obvious source of insight, advice and perspective that you have right in front of your nose, the people that you have spent the most time courting and that have cost you the most – your team.

This article shares some of the reasons why our own team has become one of t...

At the top of the organizational food chain sits cynicism, consuming your carefully nurtured culture with an insatiable appetite.

Following my previous company’s acquisition, I saw the seeds of cynicism take root within hours.

I overheard top employees say things like, “The last great company I worked at was acquired. I know how this movie plays out.”

Team members began making assumptions (and voicing them) immediately. About decisions that hadn’t been made yet. Consequences that had yet to develop. And, what they plan on doing if and when their worst fears came true.

I even heard cynical perspectives on the growing level of cynicism.

“Jason, don’t work so hard at this. There’s nothing you can do. I have never seen an organization not becom...

Many leaders start their careers with hopes of reaching the top as quickly as possible, skipping past lower-level positions as they scale the corporate ladder. This is particularly true in the startup scene, where founders essentially choose their own titles and begin their careers in management positions.

My career did not have such a direct trajectory. I meandered through the insurance industry for decades before I finally secured a leadership role. I started out working for my parents’ company, doing the grunt work of the office. I generated invoices, processed mail, and even handled janitorial duties. I was the youngest person in the office and the lowest on the totem pole, so I didn’t have a problem earning my stripes. Some people mig...

Entrepreneurship demands more grit than glamour. As any professional on the other side of the uphill challenge knows, success often means making mistakes, bravely picking up the pieces, and trying again. The process is equal parts grueling and exhilarating.

As a strategic communications professional and business leader for more than 20 years, I’ve made plenty of my own mistakes. In the end, some of the biggest snafus provided invaluable training and helped carved my path to success. They’ve truly shaped my journey and helped us become one of the fastest growing PR firm globally.

Below is some advice for first-time entrepreneurs that I wished I’d had when starting out.

From One Entrepreneur to Another

Yes, mistakes are a part of any entrepr...

When you’re just starting out and excited to share your new business with the world, building your website can be an overwhelming process. As you’ve built your business from the ground up, you have no doubt struggled to find the right way to pitch your idea. Now that you’ve found the right messaging for your story, it’s crucial that you create a website that will capture people’s attention and make a lasting impression.

Here at Startups.co we’ve seen our fair share of startup websites—the good, the bad, and the ugly. We created the infographic below to hopefully make this fraught process a little easier, and ensure that your startup website stands out.

Continuing in Phase Four of a 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 ( ←YOU ARE HERE 😀)

• Part 4 - How to Contact Investors

Let’s dive in!

Nearly all potential investors require a solid email pitch before they are willing to take a meeting with a startup. A great Email Pitch won't guarantee you a meeting, but a bad one will definitely prevent one! Therefore, creating the perfect Email Pitch is essential if you want an investor to respond.

The perfect Email Pitch is very tight — just a few very well-crafted sentences to create a great fi...

Startups can only be great at one thing — if we're even that lucky.

One of the greatest challenges in our early days is that our ideas for new features and strategies far outweighs not only our resources but the amount of progress we've made on our core product itself. We'll sit in strategy sessions saying, "Oh boy! What if we added this feature, or went down this path! Now that would be incredible!" without realizing our big ideas are actually going to be the death of us.

What we fail to understand is that great companies are built by maintaining a razor-sharp focus on their core product with an unrelenting drive to be the absolute best at that one thing, at the expense of all other distractions. Great Founders have the ability to never lo...

In 2002, when Craiglist, Friendster, and MySpace were the popular social networks, Divya Narendra was a Harvard College student who identified with the idea of online social networking.

“Its usefulness was obvious to me as a student, because I felt like I was in this campus with a lot of students, 6000 undergrads, but I didn’t know that many,” said Divya. “In Boston, there are around 50 colleges within 50 square miles — it’s very dense city as far as universities go, and I had no real great point of contact between the various universities, so I felt like bringing that community together was sort of a no brainer. When I thought about the scaling opportunities, it was pretty obvious as well — this was a use case that would be applicable to ...

Update (12/7/17): The previous video lesson is no longer available and we’ve since removed it. However, you can still see more from Paul Campbell including his lesson on Stress Resilience.

Entrepreneurs are always looking for tips and tricks to optimize their performance, maximize their output, and manage stress.

CEO and Founder Paul Campbell informs us about the biological impact of stress, the need to exercise our bodies and our minds, and structuring your day to ensure that you can handle whatever comes at you.

(Video removed – no longer available)

Being successful starts in the mind—learn how to prepare yourself up for success with the rest of Paul’s 10-step lesson (no longer available).