Getting a potential customer interested in learning more about your product is hard enough, but unfortunately early interest from a lead is a long way from a sale.

After you’ve committed to an idea for your startup, get feedback from potential customers as soon as possible. Insights from your first potential customers help direct product strategy, increasing your likelihood of making a sale.

Side Letters are separate legal documents, that usually come in addition to a term sheet, and may contain clauses which can have a big impact on your company.

Most term sheets have a section defining a new structure for your company’s Board. While the board can’t influence the day-to-day operations, they govern who does. It’s imperative you understand how the new board will work and most importantly, who has control.

When an investor finally issues a term sheet, it can be overwhelming, regardless of the actual terms it presents. However, you need to know what each clause means and how they can impact your company.

It’s hard to fire an employee at your startup. The long hours, stress and shared victories create close relationships among team members. However, you can’t let your judgment be clouded if a team member isn’t performing. Here’s how and why you terminate bad hires fast.

While there are many factors that influence seed fundraising, your behavior during the process makes a big difference. Here’s the most common traits of founders who successfully close their seed round.

A bad pitch can be the death of your fundraising hopes, even if you have incredible traction and technology. Thankfully, this goes both ways. A great pitch can be all you need to close a fundraising round, even if you don’t have anything more than a slide deck.

Many early stage founders go after big partnerships as they appear to be a silver bullet for growth, through increasing distribution and revenue. Even when partnerships do happen, they rarely work out well for the startup as they absorb so much time.

Interview projects are take home tests for job candidates. They demonstrate a candidate can help solve your company’s near term need, in addition to the culture and interpersonal skills reflected through in-person and phone interviews.

Sometimes I meet founders who have done dozens of meetings with investors but have generated zero interest. People often struggle in fundraising because they’re ignoring the basics of meeting investors. Here’s how to be successful in your investor meetings:

There are exactly zero billion dollar companies that were built by the founders alone. In fact, you’ll need to hire an army of incredibly talented people to have any chance of reaching that goal. The first part of the problem is finding the best people who may want to work at your startup. Here’s how you do it:

Getting into an accelerator program can change the growth trajectory of your startup. Although they’re often presented as educational environments, you’ll find most programs are largely self-directed. Here’s how to make the most of your accelerator:

Investor meetings can be a nerve racking experience for founders. In addition to pitching well, you also have to be wary of giving answers that could hurt your chances of an investment.

Demo day is one of the most important milestones for startups in accelerators. A good demo day can mean a great fundraising round, closed quickly. Here’s how to make the most of your demo day.

Today we’re talking about getting rid of bad customers. As the year wraps up, it’s a good time to get rid of customers who are just not worth it.

Email outreach is critical for most B2B startups. At first, use it for customer discovery and then direct sales. Although many founders try to sell potential customers immediately, I suggest asking for advice instead to improve your response rate and generate much needed feedback.

Today, we’re talking about being productive in December. The holiday season is challenging when it comes to getting things done, so what’s realistic for the last month of the year?