Entrepreneurship

I’ve been reflecting on the answer to that question myself. (And would like to hear your answer to it in the Lab forum here.) As the Lab has opened, I’ve been thinking back to why I wanted to be an entrepreneur in the first place (since I was around 16 or 17 years old) ……

Looking back on almost 5 years of full-time entrepreneurship, these are the first three critical startup partners I would suggest when getting started with a startup. 1. Significant Other Your significant other is your first, most valuable, most influential and primary partner in your business, even if he isn’t working IN the business with you.…

I saw a tweet today with a blurb to this Forbes post titled Unsolicited Advice to the New Yahoo! CEO and this quote in particular stood out to me. “Put together a small team of the best engineers, designers and product people you can find. Charter them with building something amazing that has to ship…

For an interview profile of our new startup accelerator in Oklahoma where I have volunteered to be a mentor, I was asked this question for a profile post: “What is the most important part of a company’s application when applying to an accelerator?” Some quick background on the question: The concept of startup accelerators has…

As a part of Entrepreneurs’ Organization, an amazing organization of entrepreneur peers that I’ve been a part of since 2011, I recently went to our new board’s Strategy Summit where our facilitator shared this exercise called Stop, Start or Continue. It’s very easy and simple team exercise and the results can be profound for our…

My business coach Michael Smith of iMentorLeaders.com says, “Anger and frustration come from unmet expectations.” It’s solid truth to know as you start or grow a business. Ever since I heard that truth and as I’ve gotten angry or frustrated with something in our business (or heck, my personal life for that matter), I’ve thought…

She’s the object of your obsession. You’ve always wanted to date her. Like since middle school. But you must be committed to her though. She’s demands it because she’s hot, remember?! She’s emotionally unstable and insecure. You must give her all the emotional energy and time you have and then some more. Even when you…

For the past two nights I’ve woken up at 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. respectively with ideas and issues I need to get done with our four-year-old startup at iThemes. I thought after the first couple of years this bad habit would stop, but it hasn’t. I still feel compelled to make sure the business…

One of the most helpful tools we’ve used for our workplace is the Gallup-backed StrengthsFinder.com assessment tool to understand each of our team member’s unique and natural strengths. We use it to find out what they are great at and how we can fit that into the context of our team dynamics and to ensure…

Here’s a followup of my Your Business is Like Software post. It was too long to put there, so here are 8 things I find remarkably similar between business and software development: Assumptions and ideas are like farts in the wind. Do your due diligence. Then test everything. Beta test the big things. Get feedback.…