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Almost nobody rode the “Web 2.0” wave better than Reid Hoffman. He was the most prolific early investor backing nearly every major hit that would go on to become public except Twitter, and he created the second largest company to come out of the social media wave, LinkedIn.

It all came from one insight: The consumer Internet wasn’t over after the dot com crash. And Hoffman is the only person I’m aware of who never stopped believing it. Marc Andreessen, Peter Thiel and a lot of the early Web 2.0 investors have all admitted there was at least a time they went bearish… but not Hoffman.

He was planning on taking a vacation after PayPal sold to eBay, when he noticed everyone else had moved on to cleantech and other areas. You spend your life as ...

As a startup, it’s not exactly a secret that you need exceptional content in order to stand out from the crowd.

As Gary Vaynerchuk so bluntly puts it, “It literally doesn’t matter what business you’re in, what industry you operate in, if you’re not producing content, you basically don’t exist.”

Of course, chances are you already know this, and are currently putting in the hours to brainstorm and produce top-notch content. Heck, you may have even enlisted some outside help, and already have your own team standing by, ready to turn out articles when you need them.

You’ve probably got a social media presence as well –and try to remember to keep things up to date. But for many startups –and even marketers for that matter, there’s a good chance ...

One of the most basic problems startups face is finding a way to channel the talent, resources, and enthusiasm at their disposal into concrete results. You might have an idea that can change the world, but without a concrete plan to bring it to life, even the most promising businesses can fail to reach their full potential.

Smart goal setting can keep all stakeholders in your startup on track and engaged with the project at hand. It can prevent procrastination from eating away at your enterprise’s potential while keeping your team’s energies focused on discrete objectives. One of the most popular goal setting methodologies is actually contained in the acronym SMART.

If you are looking to expand your startup quickly, SMART goal setting can h...

Conventional wisdom says that startups are at a disadvantage when building their customer base, because they don’t have the same manpower behind their efforts. But Steve Blank asserts that it is this perceived weakness that actually sets startups apart from—and ahead of—their larger competitors. It’s counterintuitive, but true!

Founders Engage Customers Directly

At large companies, employees are sent out into the world to find and talk to customers, reporting back with their findings. But if that employee reports back that the target customer isn’t interested, the passionate founder will undoubtedly believe that the fault is not with the product, but with the employee’s tactics.

At a startup, on the other hand, the founder is the one out p...

For many of us, the thought of becoming the employee once again may feel like a monumental step backward.

We worked so hard to be in a position to forge our own path that reversing course feels like total failure.

But the reality is being an employee again does have its advantages. Even if we decide to go back to being a Founder afterward.

I'm a Founder — how could I be an employee again?

It may be a terrible outcome.

The very nature of most Founders is that we generally don't like being told what to do. It's kind of our thing. It doesn't mean we're horrible people (right?), it just means we're naturally comfortable in leadership roles.

That's why most leaders are leaders.

It's not a subtle change. Once we've had total autonomy it's kind...

Most Founders taking investor money have never had an investor before – so we don't really know what to expect once we've been handed that big fat check.

There's a notion that once investors are involved, we'll get bullied around at Board meetings or pushed out like so many Founder horror stories we've heard. (Yes, Steve Jobs got fired at Apple).

Why do investors want to run my company

To be clear — they don't. At all.

The worst possible outcome for most investors is that they have to stop doing their job (investing) and instead do our jobs (running a company).

There are edge cases where individual angel investors (often with too much time on their hands) may want to meddle with the business, but most professional investors consider havi...

Like The Dude in The Big Lebowski, PowerPoint abides. It’s a great tool for assembling presentations and pitch decks. Lively conversations and entire industries surround the PowerPoint – trying to make slides better, helping people prepare materials, debating that the tool is outdated and boring… And at the center, PowerPoint abides.

There is no shortage of templates available online, but the Quickstart PowerPoint Template sticks with the fundamentals, aiming to help people “create amazing powerpoint presentations in minutes.”

Using standard fonts prevents any snags or downloading delays. A trove of images eliminates the need to conduct time-consuming searches elsewhere. 38 ready-made slides put creators close to the finish line before the...

Today’s Favorite Find: RightGIF

Elevator Pitch

RightGIF is an easy Slack integration that serves up better GIFs.

Why We Love It

If your startup/company/team of you and your best friend isn’t on Slack yet, you will be soon. They’ve hands-down won the team management wars with their ridiculously rapid growth and super easy integration. However, one of the initial things that I loved about Slack — the GIF integration with Giphy — sucks.

Like, majorly sucks. Like, you end up sending out GIFs that will, best case scenario, confuse and, worst case scenario, get you fired. On our work channels, we’ve abandoned GIFs altogether, because the only humor we were getting out of them was laughs over how terrible they were. Now, I’m not a Giphy hater by ...

Starting a business anywhere is hard, but startup founders today are in a uniquely privileged position today thanks to the media, who like to portray them as cool kids and modern heroes who succeed against all odds to survive.

Much has been written for and about startup founders, but what about the people who help carry their goals forward? What about the startup employees? Without the buffer of privilege given to a startup founder, we’re doubly vulnerable to the stress and craziness that comes with working at a startup. If you’re a startup employee, here are a few tips to help you preserve your health and sanity.

Get some sleep

Nights out and 6-day/100+ hour work weeks are not going to get things done faster. This kind of working style is ...

What is a C Corp?

“C corporation” or “C corp” stands for “corporation.” The “C” comes from the fact that C corp income is taxed under the subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code. That’s the law that responsible for the double taxation that C corps are known for, which we’ll go into more below. C corps are the most common type of corporation in the United States, but they may or may not be the best options for your startup!

Corporations are a business entities that exist entirely separately from their owners. They can be taxed, make a profit, and be held liable. In fact, they offer the highest level of protection from personal liability for the owners.

When it comes to stock, C corps can issue stock and shareholders can sell their stock a...