Stop Shanghaiing Your Users
The other week someone posted a question on dashboard.io (our 500Startups internal forum) about whether subduing an unsubscribe link in email newsletters proves to be beneficial to the unsubscribe rate. The individual also posted a question on Quora to get input from another channel. I’ve been meaning to get around to answering this since I saw the [...]
Ten Things Poker Taught Me About Being an Entrepreneur
When I graduated college, I left with a degree in Economics, one course short of a minor in Bio-Chemistry, and absolutely no clue what I wanted to do with my life. I graduated in 2005 and had been playing poker for about a year. The poker scene was heating up quickly with the Cinderella story [...]
How to Successfully Apply to 500 Startups
Since joining the current 500 Startups class, a lot of peoplehave been asking me how we‘got in’. I usually chuckle, replying “brute force”. While that’s the general truth, it lacks the majority of the details. Following is a much more in-depth account of what really went down: The Beginning – (April 19th – April 23rd) It began in mid April. I attended [...]
Raising Money for your Startup? Stop Talking to Investors!
It was mid April and things with Kibin were cranking along nicely. Jim and I both had our heads down and were working like crazy to push the product forward. Unfortunately, keeping your head down doesn’t pay the bills or quiet your grumbling stomach. I had decided we needed to raise some money. It should be easy, right? [...]
How Important is Networking?
I recently answered the question “How Important is Networking for a Startup Founder?” on Quora and thought I’d post my answer here too. I got a bit carried away while writing and didn’t realize how much I had typed. It looks like I may have scared away any other answers. Oh well. So here’s the original [...]