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Question: What’s your best tip for putting together a one-sentence elevator pitch, and why?

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

1. Use a Framework

Here are the important parts of a good framework: introduce your company name, who your target users are, the problem these users face, your solution to their problem and how your solution is better than others. Then, describe your pricing model and what users will receive in exchange for payment.

— Michael Lisovetsky
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2. Keep it Short, Sweet and To-the-Point

When creating an elevator pitch for yourself or your business, make sure it’s short, sweet and to-the-point. For e...

All startups face the same issue when launched: Each strives to create the best product and achieve market compatibility, but not all startups are created equally. Without a doubt, focusing on product development and market entrance is important, but too much emphasis on these areas tends to eclipse broader foundational issues.

I’ve met hundreds of founding teams over the years. Some were ready for venture capitalist funding while others needed to keep percolating a bit longer. In order for startups to reel in venture capitalist backing, building and scaling a fundable founding team is paramount from the start.

There’s an expression: “Choose the right tool for the team.”

When that idea is flipped, it becomes a more inspired guideline that c...

This week we had one of our best team members leave to join another startup. He was incredibly well-liked, was amazing at his job, and had a great future with Startups.com.

We couldn’t be happier that he’s gone.

Now to most that sounds counter-intuitive, or at first blush, maybe even like “sour grapes.” It’s not. We are incredibly proud and supportive of him.

We spent some time during our weekly happy hour meeting on Friday talking about exactly why we feel this way as an organization and I wanted to share some of that discussion with you. Perhaps it’ll shape how you feel about your own team and employee turnover in general.

employee turnover—
why Good People Move On

Admittedly our world is a little bit different at Startups.com in that ou...

Today’s Favorite Find: Booyah

Elevator Pitch

Booyah is a new app for iOS from the social communication platform Rounds that lets people video chat quickly and easily via WhatsApp.

Why We Love It

Look, I think we all know at this point that group video chat is pretty busted, right? Like, most of the major platforms make it either difficult or impossible or charge for the right to add another face to your face-to-face convo. I’ll admit that this is probably because the desire for group video chat undoubtedly came about waaaay before it was technologically possible, but guess what, folks? It’s 2016, and it’s definitely possible now.

Take, for example, Booyah. It’s a new app from Rounds, which is a fun video chat/hanging out platform that I wr...

Over the years, I’ve seen two main drivers of change: functional and cultural. Functional change is just as it sounds. Your organization needs to change in order to keep up with the rapid pace of developments — or, more to the point, disruptions.

This year alone, it seems almost every industry is either launching or completing some type of digital strategy. Most strategies focus mainly on improving the experience of the end user. Robo-advisors in financial services, artificial intelligence in consumer goods, and let’s not forget voice-activated shopping from e-commerce giant Amazon.

But in addition to striving to be functional in these shifting sands, many organizations are finding it difficult to recruit and retain talent — which is not mu...

“Leaders who encourage employees to pursue their side hustles can be rewarded for that investment of trust. People gain skills and master new technologies through side hustles, which can end up benefitting their primary employer.”

–Michael Ray Newman, 3 Ways to Support Employee Side Hustles

Is it insane to empower employees when the result may be that they leave your company? What exactly is the story with employee side hustles? A number of different perspectives kick around these very questions in today’s Startups Live session.

What will you walk away with? You may very well leave the conversation reconsidering your employer-employee relations. You might adopt or alter policies to accommodate side projects – to better honor your employees...

Recently Elon Musk had to do what every Founder dreads — tell his staff that they have limited funds, and if things don't improve, that it's game over.

Elon's doing it with $2.7 billion, but his problems are the same as if we had to do it with $2.7 hundred.

Letting our staff know we're running out of money while trying to rally them at the same time to succeed is a brutal game that requires extreme tact in messaging.

When should we tell our staff that we're about to run out of money?

Now, and then later.

Right now let's be honest about where the company stands and what our challenges are going forward, no matter how significant.

Elon said "We're in code red" and that all expenses are being considered. He's pointing out that shit's gett...

The following post is an excerpt is from Chapter 10 of the book Startup Seed Funding for the Rest of Us: How to Raise $1 Million for Your Startup – Even Outside of Silicon Valley, by Mike Belsito. This chapter focuses on the steps that people can take to build up their network, even if they don’t already have a strong set of connections within the venture community. Using tools available to everybody along with a little bit of hustle, any entrepreneur can build a strong network.

Some people quickly dismiss the idea of raising capital for their startup because of a saying that they’ve heard time and time again: “It’s all about who you know.” They make excuses such as:

“I’m not that well connected, I don’t even know any investors.”

“I don’t ...

It’s helpful when pitching venture capital firms to understand the mechanics of how the venture fund itself works. This will often give you an inside glimpse as to the motivations of the partners as well as how to understand the goals of venture capital firms overall.

Investors want to find the right fit. They want the right location, market size and traction, among other things.

How a Venture Capital Firm is Created

A group of smart people get together and decide that they would like to raise a venture fund to make investments in promising companies. In order to attract investment capital, they reach out to and pitch limited partners (LPs) who commit large sums of capital to the fund. They believe that the newly minted venture capital firm...

I was fortunate enough to travel to San Francisco for a week in early May and on one of my evenings I attended a pitch night which was moderated and judged by 500 Startups. These tips don’t just apply in the startup-world, but also apply for any type of persuasive presentation environment. Here’s what I learned:

1. Tell a story

I’m sure you’ve heard this a thousand times. However, what does that mean? For starters, when you’re explaining your product, don’t be so transactional — e.g. try not to explain your pitch as follows “if you struggle to track your logistics when you go for traveling, use our app.” It won’t help you to connect with your audience, it won’t help your audience remember your solution, and your audience won’t be able to r...