Go Big or Go Home: It’s a binary outcome for marketplace start-ups
It’s typically a binary outcome for marketplace start-ups at the beginning: either you figure out the chicken-and-egg problem or you don’t. But, marketplaces can face a binary outcome at the other end too: either you scale your marketplace into a large, stand-alone company that can go public, or you find yourself with few other exit […]
The slowdown in equity financing is changing venture debt too
Debt funding is an interesting option for start-ups in two scenarios: you can increase your funding base while times are good in order to maximize growth or you can use it stretch your runway when equity raises are tougher (or you don’t want to price your equity). But as the equity funding market is cooling […]
How did Jeff Bezos scale Amazon without destroying its entrepreneurial culture?
Running a start-up is profoundly different than running a big company. When you’re small, founders are close to the action and can make sure all the important things happen. But as a start-up scales, founders can’t have their hands in everything: many companies lose focus on the customer; decisions get bogged down; and there are […]
Learning from Jeff Bezos: Big winners pay for so many experiments
Amazon’s Annual Letter to Shareholders has become a must-read for entrepreneurs, investors, and business leaders – and the recent 2015 letter provides great insights into how Jeff Bezos thinks and how one of the most successful companies on Earth operates (this year, Amazon became the fastest company ever to reach $100 billion in annual sales). […]
What does “great” look like?
One of the biggest challenges for first-time founders with little work experience is that they don’t always know what “great” looks like in every area required to build and run a successful business. Understanding “great” is one of the single most important levers to push your team to greatness, hire the best people possible for […]