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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surround the PowerPoint – trying to make slides better, helping people prepare materials, debating that the tool is outdated and boring… And at the center, PowerPoint abides.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...

If you have begun a start up, you will have discovered that jobs never go without problems. Problems can occur before a job even begins, most certainly will occur during a job, and can even appear after a job is seemingly finished.

A man who used share our workshop space used to always preach — problem, reaction, solution. Problem. Reaction. Solution. He deemed it a life lesson. A motto to work by. In truth, it never meant much until our workload increased. As the jobs get bigger and more ambitious, these three words have become part and parcel of my working life. Learning to embrace them, and work through them, is a challenge you will face in every project.

Problem.

Problems usually fit into two categories; little issues and off ups...

According to the Small Business Association, veteran-owned businesses make up 9.1 percent of all US businesses — and they all need capital to get and keep them going. But securing financing for a startup or a small business is almost never easy. And it can be even more difficult for veterans, who may have gaps in their financial history due to time on active duty.

Luckily, there are a few options for business loans for veterans. Some are government-funded, while others come from the private sector. Let's take a look first at government-funded small business loans for veterans and then dive into the private sector.

Government-funded business loans for veterans

The Small Business Association (SBA) administers the most well-known small business l...

No trust? You’re toast.

I learned this lesson in what I’m convinced was the toughest way possible. When I co-founded my company, Influence & Co., I knew that in order to help us grow, make valuable connections, and land some qualified clients, I needed to dive headfirst into the word of networking.

I had a solid background in sales, so I walked confidently into my first conference, expecting to shake hands with industry leaders and influencers I could blow away with my knowledge and expertise.

This, as you’ve probably guessed by now, did not happen. I could hardly get the time of day from other attendees. It hurt me to my core and shook my faith in my ability to actually grow this company that I had put so much into already.

Why was I gett...

Today isn’t just about our new site launch – it’s about why we launched it. For those of you that have been following our story for the past few years, you know that we’ve grown our startup platform quite a bit, helping over a million startups get from idea to launch.

Most of what you’ve seen has focused on our products, whether it’s Fundable for raising capital, Clarity.fm for finding mentors, or Launchrock for acquiring customers.

But behind the scenes, we’ve been working on something far bigger: our community.

Bringing the startup community together has always been our greatest goal. This site launch has given us the opportunity to make it happen, and offer our vision for a new voice and a fresh narrative to the startup journey.

More imp...