This article is the final one in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on September the 11th, 2017. Even if the widely accepted statistic “8 out of 10 startups fail” is wrong, it is true that a vast proportion of startups are likelier to fail than to succeed. As a result … Continue reading How to prepare for wild success
Tag: FirstPost
“I failed. Now what?”
This article is the twenty-first, and the penultimate, in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on August the 21st, 2017. “I failed. Now what?” Whenever I hear these words, the first thing I do is remind the founder: People don't fail or succeed, ventures do. A “failed” venture can mean various things … Continue reading “I failed. Now what?”
On Founder wellness
This article is the twentieth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on August the 6th, 2017. In the very first column in this series, I wrote about the loneliness of entrepreneurship. Add to that the stresses of building and running a fledgling business, with the worries of making cash last, making … Continue reading On Founder wellness
Founder conflict: disagreement on fund raising
This article is the nineteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on July the 12th, 2017. Is there such a thing as disagreement among founders on fund raising? Isn’t external fund raising seen as some kind of marker of validation for startups, one that sets them on the growth path like a … Continue reading Founder conflict: disagreement on fund raising
Founder Conflict: the troublesome star in the team
This article is the eighteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on June the 19th, 2017. Both business and sport celebrate stars. In sport, especially football, star performers are often traded for huge sums of money, without regard to the fact that football is a team sport. The history of player … Continue reading Founder Conflict: the troublesome star in the team
Founder Conflict: Key Asset Ownership
This article is the seventeenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on June the 7th, 2017. In this and the next couple of columns, I shall write about founder conflicts commonly encountered but not often easily resolved. Some are foreseeable e.g. what happens to the equity of a co-founder who … Continue reading Founder Conflict: Key Asset Ownership
Attracting talent
This article is the sixteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on May the 25th, 2017. Apart from having a strategic direction and enough money to execute on the vision, the key challenge for founders is talent. Based on my experience, I will go out on a limb and say … Continue reading Attracting talent
Early employees and the art of equity distribution
This article is the fifteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on May the 10th, 2017. As a professional and an advisor, I have been on both the founder’s and the early employee’s sides of the question of equity for early employees. In an early stage venture, equity is an … Continue reading Early employees and the art of equity distribution
Losing and finding your mojo as a founder
This article is the fourteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on April the 21st, 2017. The journey of a founder can be exhausting. Those in solid founder teams too don't just have a collective experience; they also have their own, personal experiences of the founding journey. It is not … Continue reading Losing and finding your mojo as a founder
How to be a valuable non-tech co-founder
This article is the thirteenth in the Startup Series on FirstPost’s Tech2 section and first appeared on April the 3rd, 2017. The excessive media focus on techies as startup founders often makes non-techies doubt their ability to found and build a startup and create value. Many non-tech persons I meet believe that they won’t get … Continue reading How to be a valuable non-tech co-founder
