Top 20 Reasons for Startup Failure

CBinsights analyzed 339 startups that failed. Shown above are the top 20 reasons why. If you want to get into the depressing, but highly educational, details, click here.

Corporate Culture: best two documents, Ever

What Is Corporate Culture?

Corporate culture refers to the beliefs and behaviors that determine how a company's employees and management interact and handle outside business transactions. Often, corporate culture is implied, not expressly defined, and develops organically over time from the cumulative traits of the people the company hires. A company's culture will be reflected in its dress code, business hours, office setup, employee benefits, turnover, hiring decisions, treatment of clients, client satisfaction, and every other aspect of operations. 

Read more from Investopedia.

It has been called the best document to come out of Silicon Valley, ever, by Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook COO. Here is the description of the corporate culture at Netflix in an old SlideShare. The current corporate culture document is on the Netflix jobs page.  It's excellent!  Here's another:

Probably the next best document on this subject is the Handbook for New Employees at VALVe software.  These guys set the bar at a high level.

Let's meet at Starbucks... NOT!

I just read the latest email from Pitch Anything guru Oren Klaff and I've got to say I was shouting at my screen in violent agreement with him, so much so that I have to cut and paste a part of his email right here:

There is one thing I tell every single person entering my industry -- the high-stakes world of dealmaking and raising money.... #1 ...Never take a meeting in a coffee shop I know what you're thinking: Wait a second Oren ... Starbucks is so convenient, I meet people there all the time... And hey, a "deal" is a "deal" no matter where and when someone finds out about it, right? THIS IS WRONG IN A DOZEN DIFFERENT WAYS. I can guarantee you that Millions of dollars in your life and career will vanish in coffee shops (and restaurants and cafeterias too). Sure, all kinds of exciting things happen at Hot Dog stands in the movies ...

But that's all fake. Coffee shop and restaurants are ground-zero for Low Status meetings that go nowhere. Is just this my "opinion"? I called one of the Top 30 producers in Hollywood, Brant Pinvidic, to ask his opinion about “coffee shop and restaurant meetings"... ... isn't that how Hollywood "works"? Brant immediately gets excited when I ask him about Starbucks ... “I HATE Starbucks meetings!", he says. WHY? Brant tells me: "When I get invited to STARBUCKS for a meeting, I think to myself ... Really? That's where we’re doing THIS? ... Starbucks is all the 'juice' you have?" (Brant's domain is Hollywood, where "juice" means resources, influence and power. Or in other words, "CLOUT") He continues: "So you invited me to sit down in a tiny half-height chair like in a doll house... To discuss all our confidential information out in the open for anyone to hear... with the sound of blenders and espresso portafilters slamming in my ear... While I'm squinting to see some tiny PDF on your ipad?" Next Brant starts half-yelling at me... as if I had just invited him to a Starbucks meeting ... “Hey Oren, When Comcast offered $3.8 Billion for Dreamworks, did they say 'Meet us at Starbucks, we have something to show you?'" "When Verizon decided to buy Yahoo for $4.9 Billion, did Hans Vestberg tell Marissa Myers, “Let’s grab a quick lunch at Mastro’s, just the two of us and 37 lawyers, 12 accountants and my bankers?”" Brant continued, "In fact ... ... name ONE important deal that was done at Dunkin Donuts, Starbucks or Peets Coffee... YOU CAN'T!" What Brant is saying is: public spots lack seriousness, and imply your deal is weak, and a thin-veil above a “startup idea.” YOUR $100K DEAL is no less important to you than a $4.8B deal is to Yahoo. So, I suggest you take yourself seriously, and do deals in a place that says "this deal matters." Of course, I agreed with everything Brant is saying, but at this point in the conversation ... ... you know how these Hollywood guys are ... they get really spun-up and keep going and going. And Brant ... he keeps going: “Listen Oren, I’ve got another 20 rules for dealmakers...” “#2, Be the first to leave every meeting and phone call." "#3: Don’t be greedy—because buyers will walk away from “over-negotiators”" -------------------------  end of email clip from Oren Klaff If you haven't yet read Pitch Anything, stop whatever you're doing and get the book and start following his advice. It's priceless. If you're not subscribed to his emails, you are missing out on excellent content that is creatively packaged. Email me and I'll get you on the list.  Click Here

San Diego #8 Best City for Starting a Business

The 50 Best U.S. Cities for Starting a Business in 2020

San Diego

Come for brand names. Stay for the startup scene--and the beach.

Triple Sevens!!!

No. 7 RATE OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP 

No. 7 HIGH-GROWTH COMPANY DENSITY 

No. 7 EARLY-STAGE FUNDING DEALS

In 2018, much of San Diego's near-record $2.5 billion in venture capital funding went to life sciences and biotech businesses. These industries are still the main attraction in this beach town, but San Diego’s nascent tech scene is picking up, thanks largely to two new area venture firms--Blueprint Equity and Torrent Ventures--and local tech giant Qualcomm’s corporate venture fund, which is putting $100 million into A.I. companies. 

While the area’s universities generate a lot of smart, young talent, midlevel managers skilled at helping fledgling ventures get to the next level are in short supply. That could change with the arrival of outposts from Apple, Amazon, and Walmart Labs. “For a long time, Qualcomm has been the big brand name here, but when you get the Apples and Amazons [opening offices] in town, people are going to chase the brand names,” says Neal Bloom, a local entrepreneur who runs Fresh Brewed Tech, a site about San Diego’s tech community. 

The hope is that while new talent may come to the city for the bigger brand names, they’ll eventually stay for the startup scene--and the beach. --Lindsay Blakely

Source: https://www.inc.com/surge-cities

Client feedback: Optimizing Investor Meetings

This email just in from a client whose meetings with a potential investor were taking too much time to get to the point, and the client, a startup, wanted to know how to deal with the issue. 

My advice was that getting an angel to invest takes Time. They need to move at their own pace in order to feel comfortable with the startup. It's a matter of building Trust, and that takes Time. So, instead of getting the investor to change their behavior, it is more effective to change the startup's behavior to be more productive in the time available. Here's their follow up from our discussion:

Michael,

Thank you so much for jumping on a call with me yesterday on such short notice. Your advice about not trying to directly tell this investor he needs to improve his communication skills helped me to save face, and ultimately will lead to me and this investor having a more productive relationship.

During our conversation, you provided me with a framework for what needs to be done before and after each meeting. I believe I understand what you've told me, but please make sure this framework is what you intended:

Before the meeting:

• Provide a detailed agenda, along with how long each agenda item should take
• Provide a hard stop time

After the meeting:

• In the follow-up email, make sure to provide my notes of what was discussed during the meeting. This way, if something was misunderstood, the other people in the meeting can correct it

The goal of these three points is to close the communication gap, as well as to show whomever I meet with that their time (and mine) is valuable. Additionally, in regards to the "before the meeting" section of the framework, it allows me to take control of the meeting before it even begins, and ensures that less time will be wasted. 

After we discussed this framework, you also conveyed the importance of keeping my meeting times, and making sure I do not falter in holding up my commitments. You explained to me how this will improve my reputation, and show that I value people's time. I agree with everything you said.

I'm ashamed that I have not always held up my commitments with people whom I had meetings scheduled in the past, but, as you put it, I need to be a man of my word. Making sure I keep my commitments will now be of primary importance to me. I am very grateful that you illuminated how important this is. 

You ended our call with asking how I would put these points into practice. I hope that with this email, I have already began. If this or any communication I have with you does not adhere to the framework you provided me, please tell me quickly and emphatically. I don't doubt that these techniques will quickly become a vital part of my reputation if I apply them effectively.