Tag: books

50 Signs You Might Be An Entrepreneur – Business 2 Community

50 Signs You Might Be An Entrepreneur – Business 2 Community

There are two types of people in the world. Entrepreneurs and everyone else. Want to know which type you are? Here are 50 signs that you might be an entrepreneur.

1. You sold things when you were a kid.

While there are exceptions, itā€™s not uncommon to hear stories about entrepreneurs hustling at a young age. Hereā€™s just a couple of examples;

  • Daymond John customized pencils for girls he had a crush on when he was in first grade
  • Warren Buffett sold packs of gum to his neighbors when he was age 6.
  • At 12-years-old Mark Cuban was selling trash bags in his neighborhood.
  • Richard Branson bred and sold parakeets when he was 11.
  • Juliette Brindak launched her website Miss O and Friends when she was 16.

Continue reading “50 Signs You Might Be An Entrepreneur – Business 2 Community”

10 Important Startup Lessons For Founders And CEOs – Forbes

10 Important Startup Lessons For Founders And CEOs – Forbes

By Richard D. Harroch, Mike Perlis, and Mitch Zuklie

CEOs and founders of startup businesses face many challenges: raising startup capital, building a management team, developing competitive products, starting a marketing program, finding early customers, and more. The prospect of launching a new startup can be daunting.

We have collectively been involved in hundreds of startupsā€”as founders, CEOs, angel investors, Board members, leadership coaches, venture capital investors, and business and legal advisors.Ā In this article, we seek to provide advice and lessons for startup CEOs and founders based on our many years of experience.

When trying to motivate a team to perform at the highest levels, itā€™s critically important that a shared understanding of what constitutes success is crisply and clearly communicated to every member. Spell out in no uncertain terms, for the core management team, what success looks like in 18 months, in three years, and beyond.

finger pressing ā€³start businessā€³ button

CEOs and founders of startup businesses face many challengesā€”are you prepared?

Ā© Olivier Le Moal

Continue reading “10 Important Startup Lessons For Founders And CEOs – Forbes”

How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup – Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup – Harvard Business School Working Knowledge

When Munchery announced in January that it would join the compost heap of food delivery startups, the San Francisco company burned customers, suppliers, and investors that included Oscar-winning actors Jared Leto and Marisa Tomei.

In its bankruptcy filing, Munchery said that it owed $3 million to more than 230 creditors, including a bakery owner who held a special bake sale to express her outrage.

Did a company that had raised more than $120 million in venture capital need to stiff so many people?

Tom Eisenmann, the Howard H. Stevenson Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, says that shutting down a startup is almost always a messy affair. When a venture requires a cash infusion to survive, its founders may turn to bottom-fisher investors who force the company to restructure its capitalization, making the equity stakes of earlier backers and managers worthless.

ā€œThere are many things that entrepreneurs can do toĀ ā€¦Ā position themselves to bounce back from a failure.ā€

If new funds arenā€™t forthcoming, the founder will likely put the company up for sale, confronting prospective buyers whoā€™ll play a waiting game, knowing that their deal terms will improve as the startup approaches its ā€œfume dateā€ ā€”when its bank balance hits zero. In parallel, the founder will probably start to lay off employees, deciding how deeply to cut.

And this is just the prelude to a shutdown. Things get worse when it becomes clear that new investors and new owners wonā€™t rescue the startup. Liquidation follows and, along with it, a contentious auction of assets to pay creditors.

Continue reading “How to Recover Gracefully After Shutting Down Your Startup – Harvard Business School Working Knowledge”