Entrepreneurship

No business plan survives first contact with customers.

The biggest risk of a startup isn't building something that doesn't work; it's building something that no one wants.

More than 99% of startups take no funding, yet every article you read glorifies raising huge funding rounds. As if raising funding is the goal - it's not.

The term sheet is critical. What's in it usually determines the final deal structure. Don't think of it as a letter of intent. Think of it as a blueprint for your future relationship with your investor.

Never do anything just for the money.

Don't generalize; specialize. If you focus on doing one thing well and hire specialists in that area, the quality of your work will improve and you will stand out among your competitors.

Your business is not your life. Your business and your life are two totally separate things.

Don't start a company unless you can't not do it.

Some people tell me that entrepreneurship should not be disciplined, but chaotic and unpredictable - and it is. But it is just in such situations where a framework to attack the problem in a systematic manner will be the most valuable.

Growth sucks cash.

What important truth do very few people agree with you on?

The most important thing about validation is that you need to do it before you write any code.

Hastily planned exits seldom turn out to be happy ones.

Most business owners try to grow their way out of their problems, hinging salvation on the next big sale or customer, but the result is simply a bigger monster.

Most unicorn founders had no industry experience. There's no disadvantage to being a solo founder or to being a non-technical CEO.

The role of a consultant is to improve the client's condition.

Profitability means sustainability. Instead of treading water until a lifeboat comes along to save you - which is how many founders think about raising their next round of VC funding - it means building your own boat.

It's not just about the cards you're dealt, but how you play them.

Vision without traction is merely hallucination.

The goal is not to get customers. The goal is to get customers who are so happy they refer other customers.

Don't hire to grow your business. Hire to buy back your time.

What surprised me most was how unsure the founders seemed to be that they were actually onto something big. Some of these companies got started almost by accident.

The only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else.

We love talking about starts and finishes, even though the middle stretch is the most important and often the most ignored and misunderstood.

Efficiency is not about getting more things done; it's about getting the right things done.

Products that solve vitamin problems are nice to have. Aspirin products are must-haves. VCs want to fund aspirins.

The coward never started and the weak died along the way. That leaves us, ladies and gentlemen. Us.

Expertise (or insight) is based on focus, which, in turn, is based on positioning.

The biggest pumpkin farmers don't have a secret seed. They have a secret strategy: kill off the ordinary to nurture the extraordinary.

A company of one questions growth and stays small on purpose.

The Slowlane is a risky financial bet that assumes life will wait for you while you save pennies and pray your investments don't crash.

If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product, you've launched too late.

Value means helping people. If you're trying to build a micro-business and you begin your efforts by helping others, you're on the right track.