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Sometimes having to burn it all down is the best medicine our startup can take.

It sure doesn't feel that way at the time. When we're sitting across from an income statement that's been decimated and thinking of having to go back to our team, investors, and partners to tell them some truly horrible news, the last thing we're thinking is "Hey this might be great!"

But for those of you that have never been through it, I'm here to tell you, it may in fact be the best thing that ever happened to our startups.

That's because a Hard Reset gives us the one opportunity to go back and reset all of our decisions that we've made, teeing us up to build a far more efficient and capable startup going forward. It sucks — like I said — but it also has som...

Question: What is one major lesson you learned from a failed company?

The answers below are provided by members of FounderSociety, an invitation-only organization comprised of ambitious startup founders and business owners.

Don’t Stop Innovating

Before there was Yelp, there was CitySearch. It was a similar concept and was the go-to site for finding places around the city. But just as quickly as it rose, it declined. It stopped innovating and updates to the site were slow. From the outside, it seemed as if hubris and failing to innovate killed them. The lesson learned for me is when you stop innovating, your company fades away.

— John Arroyo
Arroyo Labs, Inc.

Don’t Rush to Expand Geographically

As the founder of a rapidly growing food startu...

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.

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 and critical thinking. Find out what she has to say:

Getting creative (and comfortable) with startup presentations

Back when startup presentations were nearly all slide-based, Nancy used to have a general rule-of-thumb: one slide would equal about two minutes of talking. This was a tim...

It’s tempting for young companies to put “getting involved in the community” on the to-do list for the future. They wait until the company is more established, more employees are on board, or a few more clients are locked in.

But carving out precious time to help the community, especially in the early days, can be a defining moment in building your company.

I’m not talking about the grand gesture of a big donation. Who can afford that, especially in your company’s early days? I’m talking about real grassroots involvement that engages your company and your employees in the community.

At Rocksauce Studios, we set out to establish core values that gave us a road map to consistently deliver happiness for our employees, customers, and the world ...

Let’s talk about the “f” word. No, not that “f” word. Let’s talk about startup fundraising.

We’re living at an exciting time for startups and funding. For a long time, access to capital was restricted to the elite “in-crowds” in marquee cities like New York and Silicon Valley. If you didn’t live in one of those select few areas, you basically didn’t have a prayer of seeing a check from an angel or a VC.

But the tide has started to turn. Innovation can come from anywhere, and now, thanks to the Internet, the JOBS Act, and the rise of crowdfunding, so can startup funding. Even VC’s are getting wise to the fact that the best investments may not all come from the same zip code.

So now that we’re living in this brave new world of democracy in st...

Warren Buffett, at the ripe age of 18, learned to grow his wealth in a way many young startups couldn’t. Buffet and a high school friend bought a pinball machine to put in a barbershop, hoping to make a few bucks. However, he didn’t run out and spend his earnings on new sneakers or a cool car: He reinvested them.

Buffet and his friend bought more pinball machines, eventually stocking eight local barbershops. When they sold the fledgling business, he used his profits to buy stocks and start another company. Today, Warren Buffet — who once was nothing more than a kid with an arcade game — is worth more than $67 billion.

Why should I reinvest?

Regular reinvestment has huge benefits for startups. Reinvesting increases working capital and leads ...

Kelly Cornell, Founder of the clothing and accessories line Seaton Cornell, never had to wonder what it was like to be a entrepreneur. The youngest son of April Cornell — who made her name in the ‘90s and early aughts with her lines of watercolor and travel-inspired clothing and housewares — Kelly grew up in a household bustling with the energy of a burgeoning business.

But while some kids might have felt deprived or left out growing up with parents who had so much else going on, he took it as an inspiration and an opportunity.

“I grew up with a lot of nannies,” Kelly says, laughing. “But that was a good thing! They exposed me to a lot of different people and cultures.”

India as inspiration

In addition to the people who helped raise him, Ke...

Vacation. A concept that sounds nice in theory, but is a total bitch for startups to pull off. Or is it?

For a startup founder, the logistics are terrifying. Who’s going to meet with those investors? Who’s going to start that COO search you planned a month ago? Who’s going to run your next evaluation? (Heaven KNOWS Jim can’t do it.) That generously crafted vacation policy that you dangled as an incentive to your early employees doesn’t apply to you, right?

According to a report from Project: Time Off, created to cast a new light on our country’s view of vacation days, we leave an astounding $224 billion in unused vacation time on balance sheets each year. The workaholic tendencies are even worse for startup founders, who have no “vaca...

About time we had a little word on siloed organizations—many departments and sometimes even frontiers! Does this look familiar?

Nodding head? Ok!

What does this look like to your customers?

They don’t see silos—they see content!

How can we tear down these silos?

It starts with perspective — different teams have a different idea on the role of content. Let’s look at a typical marketing team — lots of people with a tendency to wear black. And then there is the guy who runs the show and is responsible for content marketing.

This role did not exist 5 years ago because something has radically changed. As Lori from Forrester said: “74% of business buyers told Forrester they conduct more than half of their research online before making an offline...

Question

Is it OK to define high-level startup roles and responsibilities of Co-Founders at an early stage of a tech startup to avoid conflicts?

We are a team of 4 Founders and friends: two business people and two techies. I need help to clearly define the role of my other business co-Founder. I came up with the idea and convinced him to join me. Has anyone launched a startup with a similar kind of team? Your experience will be helpful.

ANSWER

Answer by Jason Lengstorf

“I think it would be vital to the company’s survival that startup roles and responsibilities are clearly defined. If there’s grey area, I’ve found that work tends to gravitate toward the more motivated party, and the social/power structure gets weird.

I started a company with...