Best Practices
In a world competing for the best talent world, a startup's own website should be viewed as a critical communication component for attracting, wooing...
Thanks to the work by Eric Ries and the Lean Startup movement, startups are using the scientific method to build products, test markets, and grow their userbase...
Whether you’re a founder thinking about using third party software for your start-up, or thinking about how best to structure licenses to your software, it’s important to...
Word always travels fast when a company is doing well, and growing quickly. The flood of resumes can be overwhelming. No matter what roles you want to fill, you’re certain...
Around Valentine’s Day you tend to see people looking for love everywhere they go. But what about a job they’ll love? At Boston Startup School, we’re playing cupid...
My first job after business school was serving as a product manager for an Internet commerce software company (Open Market, IPO'96). Back then, we learned the...
The transition from pre-IPO to a publicly traded company is significant in many areas, including executive compensation levels and practices. Connell & Partners conducted...
Last week, in a boisterous and packed room at the CIC, the heart of Boston's Kendall square startup epicenter, a group of 130+ product managers got together...
I don’t usually talk much about negotiating but think it’s something that is worth mentioning because a lot of people struggle with it.....with that, in no order...thoughts on...
“If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it” – Lord Kelvin. This article is a comprehensive and detailed look at the key metrics that are needed to understand and optimize...
“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” This statement is the reason why we go to networking events. Because of social media a new style of networking has been...
As the marketing person at a SaaS startup focused on online cloud storage, OfficeDrop, I obviously experiment a lot with email performance, varying subject line, content, design...
Inside of the Cambridge Innovation Center, tucked away in a corner on the 5th floor, lies a room known as Greenlight Labs. Outfitted with an electronics workstation, soldering irons...
Time – and how you use it – is the most important consideration for a Founder. This is one of the most important lessons I’ve learned in my 20 years as an early...
In 1999, my internet start-up was valued at nearly $100M. I thought I had it made. Like many of my contemporaries at the time, I rented a nice apartment near the beach...
There are many companies that are competing to be the “operating system” for small businesses. The theory is that with the advent of the cloud in the digital age, small businesses...
Recently, on my way to work, I wrote our team at BuySellAds the following email: Tomorrow, I want each person to email me, privately, 1 thing that I can do to make their...
A prime component of being an entrepreneur is sharing your experiences and soliciting advice from those who have been successful. Which sounds helpful all around...
I’ve been writing a blog series about trust. I started with a post on how VC is a “trust business” and I highlighted why trust between an entrepreneur and a VC is important...
Take a second and think about your fellow employees—those whom you manage, your peers and even your managers or mentors—do you know what their strengths...
I have been thinking lately about how hard it is to scale start-ups. The Lean Start-Up movement, as exemplified in Eric Ries' book The Lean Start-Up, has appropriately focused a great deal...
This is the second post in a blog series on trust. Last week, I wrote that VC is a “trust business” and I highlighted why trust between an entrepreneur and a VC is important...
We met with some of our large investors recently, and one of them mentioned: “VC is a trust business.” He was saying that he trusted us. I’ve been thinking...
Ok, you have the #1 requirement for starting a company: a good idea that’s commercializable. Now, what’s the best way to get the money...
Everywhere you turn these days, you find an angel investor. Aside from those who have always invested small amounts of cash in startups, more and more venture...
First, let’s ask: Why don’t acquisitions reach their strategic objectives? Perhaps: there are none – clearly defined strategic objectives don’t exist there’s no...
In Part 1 of this post, I laid out a portfolio company case study that lays out the considerations a CEO should take into account when deciding between capital efficiency and revenue...
A couple of quick observations resulting from a quick read of a “standard” founder vesting agreement. (1) Be wary of “standard.” There are some items legal things that are...
I hang out in a university where new ideas are everywhere. In fact, the product of the CSAIL lab at M.I.T. is arguably new ideas. I am asked routinely “What constitutes...
In my other day job, working at another startup school, I spend my time trying to change the way we educate undergraduate engineering students. One of the...