Would Your Business Survive If Your Co-Founder Died Tomorrow?
If you’re like most co-founders, your team is your second family.
If you’re like most co-founders, your team is your second family.
Designbook is an all-in-one platform for finding the team, creating the product, and raising the money to make your business a reality.
The perks of having a co-founder are many. Make sure you work to keep the relationship strong.
“Everything changes except character. Product ideas, market dynamics and even founder competencies morph over time. Character (what someone deeply values) changes at a comparatively infinitesimal pace. Diversity of gender, age and training can lead to higher team performance. In contrast, a divergence of values makes almost every ingredient of team performance harder to grasp. For example, agreeing on objectives becomes massively harder if two co-founders value different objectives.”
Part of a founder’s job is to make sure the company always gets the best possible deal — whether it’s in negotiating valuation, evaluating employees’ stock/salary or even choosing a law firm. Unfortunately, this frugal nature often has repercussions. Instead of thinking transactionally, think about these…
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it will not be possible to clone yourself during your lifetime. Major bummer, right? That means that uttering, “If only there were two of me, I could get this done so much faster!” under your breath is never going to be a viable solution for getting something done…
Alexander Mendeluk is a Creative Director, Filmmaker, Entrepreneur and Brand Strategist living in the City of Angels. Spirit Animal: Flying Cossack Leopard Squirrel. He is best known for: co-founding SpiritHoods, weird dance moves and helping social ‘treps build awesome brands. Interested in: Renaissance…
I really appreciate the saying, “What would you do if you knew that you could not fail?” This phrase gives me so much inspiration and drive to do whatever it is that I want in business and in life, without the worry of failure. It encouraged me to chase my dreams and think big…
If one of my team members is either pouring everything she’s got into a side project or she doesn’t have one at all, I consider that a warning sign for bad morale. I go through my team’s side projects on a regular basis and, as long as there seems to be balance between what they’re doing for me and what…
Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. If you find yourself at the top of the intelligence chain at your company, you’ve done something wrong. In creating a team of intelligent and driven individuals, encourage healthy debate. Disagreement is a good thing, and many times, it’s the best…
“Focus on the product!” These words of wisdom come from Ben Chestnut, the founder of MailChimp. On a visit to his offices, I asked him about marketing and PPC and the best places to advertise and he told me, “That doesn’t matter. Put your energy and money into making the product better and it will…
One of the many dilemmas faced by people who want to start their own business is to find the right co-founder. If you can work only the business side of a business, you have a choice of either finding a technical co-founder or hiring an employee. If you are a technical person, you want to work with…
“A good answer today is better than a great answer tomorrow.” Being a data-driven person, there is always something for me to over-analyze. I play my own devil’s advocate disguised as a contrarian. I can quickly get lost in my own head. However, what really drives me is seeing progress and little victories…
Discovering new things can be daunting. Think about switching up your shampoo and conditioner. I don’t know about you, but I want to do a little research, and I usually turn to my friends for their opinion. On the flip side, if I’ve discovered something awesome, I’m the first to shout it from the rooftops. Luckily…
Being able to code has become an essential part of many businesses, and not having this golden skill has been seen to put otherwise strong and effective businesspeople at a disadvantage. However, there is no reason a non-technical senior staff member or even a startup co-founder can’t add value to your…
At the end of last year I had the awesome opportunity to see firsthand what’s going on in the startup scene in Santiago, Chile. I discovered that – thanks to the government-run accelerator program named (aptly) Start-Up Chile – there’s a burgeoning, bustling, badass hive of entrepreneurs down there creating…
The economy has delivered a number of smackdowns in recent years. Damien Hoffman decided to help people pick themselves back up and stand tall. Building on previous startup success and his experience in investment banking, he co-founded the Wall St. Cheat Sheet, a financial media company meant to…
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why? More of a question than piece of business advice. During a sermon to 500 people over 10 years ago, Father Greg Tolaas (see hero, above), incorporated the following challenge into his message…
What’s the single best piece of business advice that helped shape who you are as an entrepreneur today, and why? “Every adversity, every failure, every heartbreak, carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.” – Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. I first read TGR while struggling to build…
If ever there’s a run on the inspiration market, smart money will go to The Remarkables organization. Brilliant, generous people with diverse skills and experience, eager to connect to communities and enliven our most pressing discussions – what’s not to love? Taking advantage of video-streaming technology…