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Beyond the glamour of being a startup founder, the reality is that to start a company is a long and isolating road with huge sacrifices and personal costs. Here’s what you need to know before you take the plunge.  Know the Costs of Being a Founder Before Taking the Plunge I’ve started two companies, raised over a quarter of a billion dollars, and each was successfully exited. From the outside, it may look like Founders who have pulled this off had an elegant and perfectly executed plan, but I...

One of the first steps you’ll take as a founder is to hire an attorney to incorporate your company - an exciting milestone for all founders - and coincidentally, the first step in potentially eroding control of your business.    Let’s break down the standard start-up modus operandi: You come up with a world changing idea and decide to pull the trigger and pursue your dream – you first step is to make it official and incorporate your business. While you could do some of this work yourself, you...

As a venture-backed Founder, you will constantly be encouraged and pressured to shoot for a billion dollar valuation versus an early exit - but many times a delayed exit with a higher valuation hurts founders by leaving them to take on dramatically higher risk in a zero sum game, and only serves the investors interests.     Recently, 100Plus, a company I founded and was running, made this exact choice. After raising our seed round, we had the choice to continue on the venture treadmill and ra...

In order to sustain through the founder journey, you need to build habits and a personal support team that enable you to run at peak performance in perpetuity.  The stressors of being a Founder can be overwhelming and incalculable, and since most founders don’t realize actual value in the form of a financial outcome from their companies 8-10 years it’s critical that they treat themselves like athletes to enable them operate at peak performance for the duration of their tenure.  You will break...