Startups

Where did all the angels go?

The changed landscape of early stage funding

While raising funding for my new company ENZO, it is interesting to notice how the early stage startup funding landscape has changed in the last few years. Since the last time raised funding, all the rounds have shifted. What used to be series A is now seed funding. We call the original seed preseed now. […]
Updating stakeholders

Keep every one in the loop

Updating stakeholders

Marc Barros (founder of Moment and Contour) wrote an interesting post the other day about writing business updates. [...]
Critics and your startup

It is a marathon and not a sprint

Critics and your startup

Seth Godin is one of my favorite bloggers. I read his posts daily. His writing is very concise and eloquently. I [...]
Compensation structure in a startup

Never too early to start

Compensation structure in a startup

Wages are the primary compensation for work and have a major impact on job satisfaction. Together with culture, [...]
The path is never straight

Keep your eye on the prize

The path is never straight

One of the things, I’ve learned with running startups is that the path to any strategic goal is never [...]

It’s just a feature

First they ignore you

First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win Last week, the news came out that IBM was acquiring Red Hat. On some random place, I stumbled on this photo. It made me smile: Even though it’s unclear where this quote comes from and probably not from Gandhi, […]

Start small, grow tall

Endless Tweaking

Regardless the kind of startup, the secret of all tech startups today is software. Marc Andreessen wrote a seminal post about it a long time ago; why software is eating the world. One of the major advantage is that software allows for endless tweaking. It’s almost impossible to tweak hardware when it’s out of the […]

Growing startups

The hardest thing is giving away

You always end up with less when working at an early-stage startup. The company grows and you've to give away roles and responsibilities to others. It is inevitable for a growing company. But it's ok.