An Open Letter to Paul Allen Heirs
To the Heirs and Peers of Mr. Paul Allen: Our world lost a hero when Paul Allen passed on October 15th. Mr. Allen was probably best known for being a co-founder of Microsoft and as both owner and avid fan of his beloved Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Seahawks. At the time of his death, […]
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An Open Letter to Sean McVay – If You Don’t Know Him You’ll Want To
Dear Sean, Congratulations on the 6-0 start. I realize there is a long way to go in the season, not to mention the playoffs. But for long-time Rams fans like me, the transformation you’ve led is remarkable. Millennials have a reputation for being hard-working, but a bit undisciplined. Your generation is apt to […]
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Sheryl Sandberg: It’s Time for YOU to “Lean In”
Dear Sheryl, You’ve done an amazing job steering Facebook as COO. Now I have a request. Your partnership with Mark Zuckerberg is clearly working well, even through the ups and downs of managing a very large organization serving more than a billion customers. As I’ve discussed with my readers for several years, the […]
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The Master Funding Equation – Power Recap
The Master Funding Equation – Power Recap You’ll recall from high school algebra that solving an equation generally amounts to balancing both sides. The Master Funding Equation (MFE) is similarly an equation that, when balanced, provides the solution of a maximization of your chances for funding. So, what are we attempting to balance? Expectations. Yours […]
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The Two Faces of Elon Musk – SpaceX’s Secret Weapon (Part 2)
Tesla is failing, SpaceX is surging. As I wrote in my last post, it is the best of times and the worst of times for Elon Musk, founder of both companies. In that post, I proposed that a major reason Elon Musk’s two businesses are getting such different results is that Musk has a very […]
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The Fine Line Between Scaling Up . . .or Not (Part 3)
Have you seen the movie Grand Canyon, starring Danny Glover, Kevin Kline, Steve Martin plus a host of great supporting cast members? It is a movie with a clear message: there is a fine line between rich/poor, love/hate, marriage/divorce, success/failure. I thought about the movie as I wrote this final post about scaling up, because […]
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The Master Funding Equation – A Winning Team (Part 6)
The Master Funding Equation – A Winning Team (Part 6) We’ve been looking at the Master Funding Equation (MFE) for some time now. Most recently we spent a lot of time on the five questions investors ask about a winning business strategy, including whether your business will scale or not. Now, we are ready to […]
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How Will You Scale Your Business (Or Not)?
How Will You Scale Your Business (Or Not)? Part 1 We took a brief foray back into the world of the elevator pitch in my last post, in order to celebrate our contest winners as well as to recognize each of you who took the time to craft pitches. So let’s re-set our ongoing context before […]
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What do You Really Sell?
What Do You Really Sell? The Master Funding Equation #5: A Winning Business Strategy (Part II) Last post I introduced the concept of a winning business strategy as a key part of the Master Funding Equation. Part of a winning business strategy is a succinct, clear, believable business model. I left you with five questions […]
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Only The Top 5% Listen Their Way to Funding: The Master Funding Equation 3
Only The Top 5% Listen Their Way to Funding: The Master Funding Equation (Part 3) Want to have a breakthrough in funding? Then you undoubtedly need to have a breakthrough is listening. In fact, you need to become the superhero of listening. A year ago in this blog, I wrote twice about the importance of […]
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