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Today’s society glorifies startup life. Most see startup culture as acquiring VC funding, getting a fancy office, and rapidly scaling. The problem is that no one wants to talk about the grueling path every startup must endure before acquiring funding— this is the side hustle stage. This means you are still working your full-time job and starting a business on the side which will eventually become large enough to be your new full-time priority.

Marc Andreessen stated that the life of a startup could be divided into two phases: before product/market fit, and after. The latter is the fun part – when VCs and scaling the business come into the equation. This article is about the former, less glamorous part of building a business. The part that ...

Acquisition is often the end goal for so many startups, especially if they took on venture capital at any point during their journey. Founders dream of multi-million dollar exits as they code for the fourteenth hour that day, when they skip meals because they’re on a roll, and when they forego (precious) time with their families.

Acquisition is the light at the end of the tunnel; the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. It’s a cliche for a reason, right?

The reality of selling a startup

If only the reality of startup acquisition matched up with the rosy vision many bootstrapped (and sleep-deprived!) founders envision in their few hours “off”.

Cahlan Sharp, founder and CEO of the coding school DevMountain, came to the realization pretty q...

Not so long ago, the word “outsourcing” had a bad rap as being synonymous with lost local jobs and greedy CEOs looking for dirt cheap labor. Today, however, busy entrepreneurs and companies everywhere are considering the advantages of virtual outsourcing.

There are many reasons for outsourcing to a virtual assistant, but it can be difficult to determine if the benefits outweigh the negatives. Here are some pros and cons of insourcing versus virtual outsourcing to consider before you decide if a virtual service is right for you.

Pros of Outsourcing to Virtual Teams

Lower Cost: With all of the expenses that go into hiring an in-house employee, such as recruiting costs, healthcare and other benefits, parking, office space, and supplies, outso...

Before you think about raising capital or growth strategy for your startup, ask yourself this question: “Exactly how much money do I need to feel rich?”

Raising capital implies trying to grow a business, and in many cases, creating a big financial outcome for you and your investors. But do you really need a big financial outcome? How big? Are you sure about that number?

Disclaimer

This article is going to talk about how to spend money. You may want to save it all, you may want to make it rain in the VIP balcony at the club. I don’t care how you spend it. I care that you know exactly how much money you need to achieve your goals, down to the last dollar.

Map Out Every Last Dollar

Before you answer with the typical “I want a $100 million exit...

When people talk about the transformative innovations shaping business in the 21st century, you may hear them talk about the influence of automation or the impact of increasing globalization. But one of the most revolutionary aspects of the digital revolution often goes unmentioned: social media.

Because so many of us tweet and post and share day in and day out on our personal accounts, it’s easy to think that social media is… well… easy.

But social media has completely transformed the way businesses connect with their audiences. And as any Founder who has struggled and failed to drum up an online audience for their brand can tell you, effective social media strategy is deceptively hard to get right. It takes a delicate balance of strategy ...

Things were looking up for Kelly Reid, founder of Quiet Speculation, in 2007. His post-college years had been “a total catastrophe,” but he’d finally found a job at a startup he liked and felt like he was getting his act together. He was making decent money — almost enough to live in New York City — and he was learning new tech skills. His employers gave him more responsibility and he began to really thrive. Yeah, all in all, things were starting to look up.

And then the crash of 2008 happened.

“One day I woke up with no job,” Kelly tells Startups.co. “The whole world caught on fire and my entire life was kindling.”

But there was one thing that Kelly Reid still had going for him.

Magic: The Gathering.

Making a game very, very real.

So ther...

Marc Nager might know more about the global startup ecosystem than anyone in the world.

While that statement seems hyperbolic, it’s not: Marc has spent the past six years expanding Startup Weekend — which brings startup entrepreneurs together to create a new company over the course of 54 hours — from 32 events to almost 3,000 worldwide.

Today, it’s one of the most recognized names in the industry, with close to 200,000 community members and over 23,000 teams formed in 150 countries.

“In my time with Startup Weekend, I was so fortunate. I got to meet heads of countries and work with executives from many Fortune 500 companies,” Marc tells Startups.co. “I got to work with leaders, entrepreneurial grassroots leaders from literally hundreds of c...

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...

Slack is a great work tool for communication. Teams love being able to easily send messages to one another in real time and keeping conversations organized by channels. For speed, convenience and simplicity, Slack rocks.

Is there a downside to being able to connect so efficiently?

Well, employees and managers do grow accustomed to living with one another in their back pockets. When it comes time to have a more serious conversation, it’s not always obvious that more than the typical quick question/brief exchange is being called for. Setting up different channels for different kinds of conversation is one way to make the distinction, but there’s no guarantee that’s how they’ll actually be used.

Is there a better way to signal when the stakes ...

At school we were taught that the key to success is a graduate degree and a steady job at an established company. Yet over the past decade we have seen many major companies collapse, and during the recession that began in 2008 many millions lost their jobs just in the United States. Many had graduate degrees. People began to realize that their lives and security depend solely on themselves, and that job security is often a hollow promise. This raised the question: if a job can be lost at any time because of external factors, why not work instead on something you actually care about?

Working in a corporate cubicle on something that does not really correlate with your values did not seem so appealing anymore. Employers have often misinterpret...