In the last month, we’ve had three founders come to us with questions and problems related to raising money for their early stage start-ups. In the next few installments, we’ll cover critically important issues of executing an early stage raise. Early Stage: Your Money Plus Sweat Equity In the early stage of your company, it's likely you will be funded using your own money plus sweat equity. Most investors you'll seek for follow-on rounds will expect that you did both, as it

This week, we’re going to cover a fatal mistake that regularly catches founders and CEOs by surprise and takes ongoing commitment to keep it in check. What We Learn Growing Up When we’re young, the majority of our accomplishments and accolades come from what we do, such as hitting a home run in little league or getting an A+ in AP calculus—i.e. “Good hit, Annie!” and “Great work, Lila!” Doing things helps us feel good. When we accomplish something tangible, we usually give ou

Last week, we covered potential fatal errors related to funding and valuation. This week, we’ll continue our discussion and address the fatal error of not raising enough capital. Though there are usually underlying issues, running out of cash is the number one reason that start-ups fail. So, why don’t founders raise more money at each round? The answer is usually based on fear or ignorance, and sometimes both. Key point. For your start-up, ensure that you raise sufficient mon

Founders and CEOs who haven’t participated directly in multiple start-ups—most readers of this article—frequently make errors early in the process. Over the last few weeks at Broadscope, we’ve been in conversations with a few new CEOs who have made or are making what may be fatal errors. This week and next, we’re going to deviate from our path through the outline business plan and address some potentially fatal mistakes that you want to avoid. Fatal Errors We define fatal err