Alex Iskold is the managing director of Techstars in New York City. Serial entrepreneur, founder of Information Laboratory and GetGlue. Engineer, geek, complex systems addict, lover of art and wine. Invest and help tech startups. He actively blogs about startups and venture capital at http://alexiskold.net.
Some people say that accelerators are only good for the companies that didn’t yet raise financing. They argue that if the company has raised capital, then it’s too far along for an accelerator and wouldn’t benefit from it. My take is different — none…
Funnels are remarkably useful in many aspects of startup life. Whether you are trying to get users to try your product, or sell to an enterprise customer, or hire an engineer, or raise capital, you are dealing with a funnel. Here are a few funnels we…
Mailing lists can be a simple yet powerful tool to keep people up to date on your progress. The advantage of having several mailing lists is that you can tailor your information with the right audience. Here’s some tips on how to carve up…
We are all in the rush these days. As founders, we want to literally do more faster all the time. As we rush, we may get a lot done, but sometimes we don’t do things right. We forego quality in exchange for speed and quantity. Yet it is…
Getting your elevator pitch down for investors is one thing. But what you might not know is that your customers can sell your product a lot more effectively than you can. However, without specific training, they might not be getting the pitch right. Recently…
Competition is a strange topic. It is both underrated and overrated. This may seem like a contradiction, but it really isn’t. Startups often don’t spend enough time understanding the market and spend too much time worrying about competition once they launch. In this post,…
Your startup has grown and you need the capital to grow with it. You’ve raised a seed round and now have a formal board of investors and mentors to answer to each quarter. And while a boarding meeting can be a scary place, making sure its…
This article is courtesy of Techstars, the best global ecosystem for entrepreneurs to bring new technologies to market. From inspiration to IPO, Techstars empowers the world’s most promising entrepreneurs throughout their lifelong journey by providing a global ecosystem made up of tens of thousands…
I once had the pleasure of hearing Lou Gerstner, former CEO of IBM, speak. Something he said stuck in my head: “Never let anyone own your schedule.” It’s simple, it’s obvious, yet it’s genius. Over the years, whenever I didn’t follow this advice, I was stressed and…
One of the worst things that can happen to a CEO of an early-stage company is to be in the state of perpetual fundraising. Here is how you can tell that it may be happening to you: You have been fundraising for a while;…
