Ian Sobieski, investor and managing director of the Band of Angels Venture Fund, highlights the benefits and specialties of angel investors, underlines the keys to finding and engaging an angel, and defines how to get the most out of your relationship with your investor after the deal is made.
Starting a company and remaining an active member of your family is no easy task. In some ways, a startup becomes the newborn of a family–whiny and constantly craving attention. It doesn’t leave a lot of room for other people to enjoy your company, and as many middle children know, this can leave others feeling left out and abandoned.
Of course you have a plan for your business. You also need an intellectual property strategy that supports it. In this video series, Peter McDermott explores the ins and outs of “Intellectual Property”.
Starting with a random array of marketing tactics is never a good idea, no matter how free or exciting the tools are. Diving into marketing without understanding your niche in the market or where your competition stands in comparison could end up costing you greatly down the line.
“No business plan survives first contact with customers,” Steve Blank says. What? Isn’t the point of planning that you maximize the likelihood of success in the marketplace? Well yes, but perhaps not the kind of planning you might be thinking about. A business plan conceived on paper, powered by a great idea or invention, enhanced by research on the size of the market and a customer profile, has great potential. But it also has a crucial flaw.
Andrew Vagenus of Pharmapacks.com discusses “Founder Genius: Andrew Vagenas – “Turning Competition into Partnership.”
Meg Cadoux Hirshberg discusses “Surviving the Entrepreneurial Life: Work and Family.”
You may be called upon to make presentations of varying lengths to different audiences. In this video, Nathan Gold reviews these different presentations and how to think about them.
Jeff Bussgang, entrepreneur, venture capitalist with Flybridge Capital Partners, and educator at Harvard Business School, offers advice on how to stand out to an investor, how to know when you need venture capital funding, and what to watch out for when negotiating your deal.
We have interviewed dozens of accomplished entrepreneurs for our Founder Genius clips. We’ve talked with them about topics ranging from founding team dynamics, balancing the entrepreneurial life, sales and presentation strategies, and how they tackle the challenges of protecting intellectual property.