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I’ve never been good about posting a multipart tweet… When there are more comments on Twitter about layoffs and funding uncertainty than Series A (monster) rounds of funding, it’s time to pay attention. I sent this email to our portfolio companies as a three-minute read. Portfolio Company Notes – May 6, 2022  As we continue

It’s a good day when you get a box of books via FedEx from your publisher @BenBellaBook! The galley proof is the softcover version of a book before it goes to the final hardcover version. It’s an advance copy, in my case the book is shipping March 30, 2021, and is available for pre-order on

I have been fortunate to travel to some amazing places in my life. I never take it for granted. I grew up in a small town and didn’t get on a plane until I was 20. (Edited to correct the hashtag) What I love about working with founders is that the defy amazing odds and

How do we evaluate teams for Seattle’s Startups meet Angels meetup (aka Angels, Pitches and Beer)? Pitches Bring your pitch deck and plan on a 5 minute pitch with 5-10 minutes of Q&A from the Angels. Your pitch will not be public, but in a conference room with qualified investors only. Selection Process: 6+ Teams are

I’ve never been great about New Year’s Resolutions – but I’m a fan of goals. Goals can be a challenge because we set unrealistic goals at this time of year and miss them early. So while we feel defeated, we end up giving up on the bigger picture, the reason for the goal in the

I’ll admit, when Dan Rossi and I started discussing this idea of reading 100 books in 2017 it was New Years Eve and we were on the second bottle of wine! I had read a recent post of from Brian Sanders Medium post that had read 200 books in a year. That seemed like such

I posted about establishing your Milestones and Sprints in the last section. At this point, you should have a pretty good idea of the scope of the project. For example, is it 4-two week sprints for a total of eight weeks? If you have one developer declare that they can whip it out in a

Some new investors – or those who aren’t experienced in launching and growing a technology or software business – will ask a Startup Founder, “What is your Sustainable Competitive Advantage?” <Thanks for the reminder of the question from a current #TSSeattle Team.> That question makes you look smart<not>. It reminds me of a college philosophy class

After fiddling with wireframes, you’ve done your customer development. using the PowerPoint demo. People like your idea – CHECK!  You can go past GO! But you don’t get to collect $200, yet. You have more work to do. You’ve drafted the specification. Pages, bullets, and versions are numbered. You’ve ruthlessly moved future features into that section

Getting your startup off the ground is going to require you to nail down a ton of tasks – on a short deadline. As the Founder (new CEO?) some of the tasks are in your sweet spot, and some will require you to learn new skills. You will need to launch the right MVP product,