The first major difference between having an idea and a startup is how others react to you. You need customer feedback to understand if your product or service provides value in people's lives and what they like or don't like about your company.

What is it that big, stodgy corporations have discovered about running a business that keeps things chaos-free? The answer is that big businesses have discovered 'process' and they've run with it.

Because a truly successful venture is rarely a one-person show, your ability to get the right people on your team -- and doing their best work -- is possibly the most critical, and often overlooked, skill an entrepreneur can have.

The formal fundraising process from first meeting to close may have taken thirteen days, but the reality is much more complicated. Laying the groundwork for that fundraise required years of hard work, longstanding relationships, and even then, a good deal of luck.

I joined my first startup about four years ago, in what I thought was early in the life of the company. We had about 50 paying enterprise customers us...

VCs are a popular target for the media, bloggers (and even fellow VCs) to hate on. Here's my completely biased and unscientific checklist of who not to take money from.

"Unless you work for a startup you really have no idea what it takes. For a startup to be successful you need product, traction and revenue. Very few startups get to all three very fast."

I wanted to dive a little bit deeper into some common misconceptions about the process to help some entrepreneurs who are going through the process currently.

In the spirit of collaboration (and entrepreneurship), I sent a quick email out to my successful self-employed friends and asked, "What is the best advice you have for business owners?"