Thoughts on Tech Startups and Venture Capital
When I was running my second company, I was out of shape. I didn’t take care of myself, nor did I understand the importance of self-care. To start with, I had been a smoker since I was 15. Although I had quit around 30, it had left a mark on my body. I didn’t exercise…
Read more Self-care: 8 Tips for Founders to take care of themselves
Time is one of the things we unfortunately can’t get more of. As the amount of information we have to deal with is accelerating, our time seems to be shrinking. Here are 12 ways for giving back, and being respectful of, other people’s time: 1. Schedule shorter calls and meetings We have written here before…
Read more 12 Ways to Give Time Back to Others and to Yourself
I dislike bureaucracy and over-process, but I love writing things down. Whether it is a product specification, job opening, marketing plan, or content strategy, putting things on paper creates clarity and saves time. When you have a thought that you want to share and get feedback on, write it down. When you write things down,…
At Techstars we talk a lot about productivity, email, getting things done, basic biz dev, and fundraising culture. Below is a collection of general tips we give our founders. While nothing is ever universal, these are generally helpful for your startup, especially if you are a first time founder. Productivity 1. Prioritize and only do…
Read more 51 Quick Productivity and Business Tips for Startups
We spend a lot of time talking to Techstars founders about focus. We talk a lot about saying ‘no’ to things that don’t matter. We talk a lot about not chasing too many things at once. We try to give founders tools for deciding what’s important. We try to give them a framework for how…
Read more What’s your GMT – the next goal, milestone, and task?
Being able to quickly get in front of the right people is an important skill. Biz Dev has evolved to be leaner, but people’s attention is ever more scarce. Gone are the days of lengthy emails – Twitter has forced us to fit most of our thoughts and actions into 140 characters. Here are 7…
I once had the pleasure of hearing Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, speak. Something he said stuck in my head: “Never let anyone own your schedule.” It’s simple, it’s obvious, yet it’s genius. Over the years, whenever I didn’t follow this advice, I was stressed and unproductive. Gradually, I learned that planning and following…
Startups are easily overwhelmed with ideas. They have a ton of their own, and they hear a lot of advice from others. How do you actually take all of the ideas and prioritize, focus, execute, and grow? Here is a simple system inspired by Agile software development that can help you do that. It’s a…
I love to optimize things, and I am scheduling nut. I love planning my days and weeks. Most of my inspiration comes from Fred Wilson and Brad Feld (I’ve been reading their blogs for 7+ years) and they are incredibly organized about their life. I get 300-400 emails per day for Techstars (all of which…
