Feel the Boot

Profitability Master Ruth King is the award-winning author of 5 books including “the Courage to be Profitable” and “Profit or Wealth?”  In this interview, we talked about the lifecycle of startups and particularly the challenges of a phase encountered by most companies that she calls “No Man’s Land.”   Some of the specific topics we covered were: ·      When to l...

Should you bootstrap your startup to greatness or take outside investment to accelerate your growth? Making the right decision can determine if your company will succeed and change your payout at exit by orders of magnitude.   Read the blog at https://ftb.bz/56B Watch the Video https://ftb.bz/55V Join Feel the Boot for our newsletter and free personal coaching https://ftb.bz/join Meet other f...

Founders are often frustrated that, after struggling for weeks to perfect their pitch deck, investors just skim through it in a few seconds. Unfortunately, because they look at so many companies, they don't have a choice. I recently attended a webinar by Eric Bahn, GP and co-founder at Hustle Fund, where he talked about using better slide headlines to create a skimmable deck. His approach resonate...

Today I want to address a problem faced by many founders, prioritizing development projects in the face of conflicting opinions and pressures. Because resources are usually critically limited, you must narrowly focus your development resources. What are you going to build, and more importantly, what will not get built? The problem compounds when you are a non-technical founder/CEO, and your CTO, d...

At one time, almost all startup fundraising happened in person. Investors wanted to see the founders face-to-face to get a read on their passion, intensity, and integrity. With COVID, all that changed, and the industry quickly pivoted to conduct virtually all pitching and investing over video conferences, mostly Zoom. I don’t think we will ever go back to pitching entirely in person, so mastering...

I judged a pitch competition last night and the other judges and I, all noticed something about most of the pitches. They were going way too fast. The founders were just tearing through the material and leaving us baffled about what it was they were talking about. So I was inspired to create a quick episode talking about this issue, unpacking why it happens so often, and some ways to try to avoid...

What are trademarks, patents, copyrights, and trade secrets, and how should you use them in your startup? Investors frequently pepper startups with questions about their intellectual property and how well it is protected. Most founders know very little about this somewhat arcane and complex topic. Fortunately, with a bit of information, you can start making the right decisions for your business an...

I am concerned about a lot of the startup advice I see out on the internet. Much of the advice is sound, and almost all is well-intentioned, but I think that a significant fraction is problematic. The troubling advice is typically in the form of a recipe or template for success. It tells founders that if they take specific actions, follow a given pattern, or use a particular pitch deck, they will...

I have talked to many founders about automating business processes and why they should put that off as long as possible. You may have heard the Y Combinator mantra “do things that don’t scale.” Usually, they discuss that in terms of sales or support, but we rarely talk about the idea with respect to software and automation. We need to understand the value of doing things by hand in the early stage...

I don't introduce myself in these blogs or episodes, which may leave some of you wondering, "Who is this Lance person, and why in the world should I take his advice on startups?" I thought So, that’s the topic for today. TLDR: I have been an entrepreneur where I ran my own business for 13 years. I then stayed on as Chief scientist for the acquiring company, where I helped develop their technology,...

As a Global Entrepreneur in Residence at the Founder Institute https://fi.co and chair of the selection committee for the North Bay Angels https://www.northbayangels.com/ I see heaps of pitches. Unfortunately, the same few fundraising mistakes doom most of their efforts. I want to share with you my list of the ten most common fundraising mistakes founders make and how you can avoid them. 1 – Only...

In this year-end installment of Feel the Boot, I want to, not surprisingly, look back at 2020 and also talk about some of the ideas I have for where Feel the Boot can go going forward. When I thought about this episode, the first thing that came to mind was the "I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue" scene from Airplane! For those of you who aren't familiar with that reference, check the W...

Watch the video version here . Or read the blog here . I want to talk about a different way of thinking about your competitive environment. It's been resonating with a lot of the people I advise. I talk with a lot of founders about their competitive environment. Usually, that starts in the context of helping them with their deck. They're often in the process of putting together that all-important...

I first interviewed Che Voigt a few months ago. He is chair of the North Bay Angels and co-founder and CEO of Altwork. If you have not already listened to that episode, you can get it here: https://ftb.bz/32B At that time he was getting ready to release a new version of his product right in the middle of the COVID crisis. Little did we know that all his plans were about to change. Shortly before t...

When I founded Anonymizer, I struggled with selling and marketing our solutions. I want to talk about how I overcame my engineering and science habits and prejudices to become effective at sales and marketing.   Selling does not come naturally to most technical people. From a cultural perspective, we see it as a “bad thing.” Engineers typically dislike being sold and don’t want to sell. It is...

I recently talked to serial entrepreneur Johann Moonesinghe about his experiences as a founder and investor. He was one of the first people in the country to try equity crowdfunding, focused on restaurants. He actively invests in and advises tech startups through TechStars and directly. We talked about how the COVID crisis impacted restaurants and other startups, and the common elements among thos...

In my recent interview with Joy Hermsen, we talked about a wide variety of issues and ideas critical to entrepreneurs, including finding mentors, startup survival strategies, how training for triathlons relates to entrepreneurship, and getting or giving frank feedback. Joy’s experience in business and from teaching entrepreneurship and leadership shines through in this conversation. Bio: Joy Herms...

Intelligence, skill, and hard work are necessary for your startup to succeed, but they are often not enough. In my experience, you need to be lucky too. In this blog, I will share some of my experiences with creating luck and opportunity to help you make and exploit them yourself. The corpses of companies with good ideas and execution litter the entrepreneurial landscape. I know that many of my co...

I recently had the chance to talk with Michele Chaboudy. She is an experienced senior executive, serial entrepreneur, consultant, and angel investor. Michele is vice-chair of the north bay angels and teaches innovation at Santa Rosa Junior College. Her background and experience are wildly diverse giving her insights broad applicability. In this interview, she shares tons of useful advice for any f...

When you pitch investors, your audience will only remember a couple of ideas. Your job is to make sure they are your biggest strengths. In this blog, I will help you identify the aspects of your company that will wow investors. I talked in previous blogs about why you need to highlight the most important strengths of your business in any presentation, particularly in pitches. If you need help crea...

I recently had a chance to interview Lisa Tamayo, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, CEO/Co-founder of Scollar , and my close friend. We talked about their pivot from product to platform, and she shared hard-won experience about the startup process that will be invaluable to any new founder. Video: https://ftb.bz/37V Blog: https://ftb.bz/37V

This is the second video exploring a process I developed for helping you find the optimum direction and strategy for your business. In part 1, you captured a wide range of possible concepts, then systematically narrowed them down to just the best few. If you have not already read it, I suggest you go back to part 1 before reading this. https://ftb.bz/35V In this part, you will dig deeper into your...

If you need to choose a problem to solve, identify their customers, and settle on the solution for your startup to bring to market, this video is for you. This tool can also be useful for thinking about your pivot options if your current direction is failing. You can read this as a blog at https://ftb.bz/35B This video explains the first part of the process where you develop a large number of poss...

I recently had a chance to talk with Iris Fujiura, Chapter Lead of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, a national network of angel investment groups focused on woman-run startups. Prior to that, she was an engineer, and eventually an executive, working on rockets and launch systems. Video version: https://ftb.bz/34V Blog version: https://ftb.bz/34B She provided great insight into angel inv...

I answer more questions and provide more coaching about investor pitches than anything else. Once you decide that you need investment to grow your company, your task as a founder is to convince investors to give it to you. The first step in that process is a pitch, and getting it right is essential to the future of your business. In this blog, I will share with you my five-step process for buildin...