"Many schools [and companies] have provisions in their employee handbooks or employment contracts that make clear that an employee's salary and other compensation elements are to be kept confidential...A little known provision of federal law makes such confidentiality statements unlawful."
Read more in this Fisher & Phillips article found via the newsletter of Employment Law Information Network.
Inc. magazine is asking for your feedback and vote on your favorite of four startups recently profiled by the Magazine. You can join entrepreneurs--Tim Gill of Quark, Paul Orfalea of Kinko's (NYSE:FDX), Roxanne Quimby of Burt's Bees, and Gordon Segal of Crate and Barrel--to provide the founders (and the rest of us) with your feedback. The four companies:
- A product design start-up (their first hit is a rolling runaway alarm clock) started by Gauri Nanda, our cover subject, a woman from Detroit who just completed her master’s at MIT
- TechShop, a geek’s paradise in Silicon Valley, where you can go to learn how to use welding equipment or a lathe or whatever crazy machinery you want
- Zsweet, a new sugar substitute (forget Splenda) that’s sold through Whole Foods
- A new software company in Oregon called GreenPrint, that cuts down on printer waste
You can find the links to the main feature’s page, as well as individual links to each fresh new founder, below.
How to Launch a Cool, Profitable, Worth-All-The-Risk, Kick-Ass Start-Up (And Live To Brag About It)
Case Study #1: The Reluctant Entrepreneur
Case Study #2: The Inventor's Best Friend
Case Study #3: The Taste Maker
Case Study #4: The Enlightened M.B.A.
Dave Cheong offers the following 8 simple things you can do to encourage others:
Show genuine interest...Let them know you care. Express genuine interest by asking questions. Get them talking...
Acknowledge what’s important to them...affirmation and validation is like nitro for their confidence and self-esteem.
Say “Well done”. ...These magical Words of Encouragement at the right time can make all the difference between “keep going” and “give up”.
Say “Thank you”. Common courtesy. Good manners... A simple thank you lets others know what they have done is worthwhile and meaningful to you.
Reciprocate the favor...Think of this as a pendulum. They do something nice for you. You do something nice for them. They do something nice for you. You do something nice for them. And so on…
Respond with something unexpected...
Ask for advice or confide in them...
Offer to lend a hand...If that person sees that you are willing to commit your own time and energy in their interests, they will be more committed to seeing it through and less likely to give up...
"How should one value a startup? It’s obviously a difficult question because the company typically has no revenues, few assets (apart from people and some IP), and cannot be traded in a market with enough participants (and enough information) to accurately determine a price."
This post from Ryan Junee describes is one of the most widely used (often called the ‘VC method’) using a simple scenario of a company that takes only one round of venture financing, and then show how this method can be expanded to handle multi-stage financing, stating:
"The first thing we need to calculate is a ‘terminal value’ for the company. That is, a value at some point (say 5 years) in the future. This point may be an expected liquidity event (IPO or acquisition), or failing that should be a point where the company is at least earning a profit...
Lets make this clearer with an example. Our company, Infelidoo, is expected to earn a $3M profit in year 5. Comparable companies in Infelidoo’s industry are trading at PE ratios of around 15. This means Infelidoo’s expected terminal value is $3M x 15 = $45M...
The Venture Capitalist’s Required ROI
Lets say our VC is ready to invest in Infelidoo and needs to value the company. The company needs $2M to get started - and in this simplified example will need no more cash over the next 5 years to reach its goal. Given the risk of this project, the VC decides she needs a 50% annual rate of return on her investment (more on determining the rate of return later).
This means in year 5 the VC’s investment must be worth (1 + 0.50)5 x $2M = $15.2M. [That’s just (1 + IRR)years x Investment] So, in year 5 the VC expects the company to be worth $45M. Her share of the company must be worth $15.2M. Thus her ownership stake in the company must be 15.2/45 = 34%.
Note: by taking a 34% stake in the company now, in exchange for $2M, the VC is valuing the company at $6M.
The Discount Rate
Above we used a discount rate (rate of return) of 50%, which may have seemed somewhat arbitrary. The discount rate reflects the level of risk in the company (the higher the chance of failure, the higher the discount rate should be)...Figuring out the exact discount rate to use is more art than science. Some approximate guidelines for discount rates based on the stage of the company are:
Seed stage: 80%+
Startup: 50-70%
First-Stage: 40-60%
Second-Stage: 30-50%
Bridge/Mezzanine: 20-35%
Public Expectations: 15-25%...
Carol Elefant at MyShingle.com, announced the launch of her new feature, SOLOFORMANIA - "a cornucopia of forms for the busy solo - ranging from FREE sample practice guides, fee agreements and retainer letters, to court forms for all 50 states (some free, some fee) to general form files on the Internet."
The Web site SorryGottaGo.com offers a collection of audio clips to help people get off the phone with telemarketers. Hilarious. Thanks to Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog for the link to the site, which you will find on his blog.
This gives me an idea for how to deal with a perennial question I receive, "Can you spell your last name?" Of course I can. With a click on my computer linking to a recording of the spelling, you will also be able to.
"If you’re struggling to find success in your quest for venture capital, maybe you’re looking in the wrong place. Venture capital is not for everybody... there are plenty of other options available when it comes to finding capital. From angels to credit cards, here are 25 alternatives to consider when it comes to funding your business.
1. Angels
2. Private Placement
3. Initial Public Offering
4. Bootstrap Financing
5. Fund From Operations
6. Licensing
7. Launch Customers
8. Vendor Financing
9. Sweat Equity
10. Self Funding
11. SBA Loans
12. SBIR and STTR Programs
13. State Funding
14. Home Equity Loans
15. Community Banks
16. Microloans
17. Finance Debt
18. Silent Partner
19. Friends
20. Family
21. Form A Strategic Alliance
22. Sell Some Assets
23. Business Lines of Credit
24. Personal Credit Cards
25. Business Credit Cards..."
Read more in this article from Business Fund.com.
"Many private business owners sell (or grant options to sell) minority ownership interests in their business to employees, investors, family members, friends and others. The majority owner selling these minority interests may be motivated by many reasons, such as: the desire to obtain new capital, incentivize, reward or put "golden handcuffs" on employees, strive for family harmony, obtain estate planning goals and reap the emotional feeling of power or largesse.
"The majority owner’s goals, while certainly well intended and understandable, often focus only on these positive aspects, but seldom factor in the countervailing concerns" that are addressed in this article [from Business Law Today]."
The article notes that, "The sensitivity of majority owners to common pitfalls in their relations with their minority partners, together with their taking reasonable precautions prior to and after offering ownership positions to minority owners, can minimize litigation, improve harmonious inter-owner relations and improve the business’ prospects for success."
The article provides the following list of factors to consider when taking on minority investors:
Overall fundamental fairness/exercise of fiduciary duty. A vigilant or persistent minority owner will be entitled to scrutinize carefully every action or inaction by the majority owners. These rights exist, within reasonable limits, whether the minority owner sincerely questions the majority’s conduct or is trying to use its position to frustrate or hinder the majority.
In general, minority owners may assert that the majority breached its fiduciary duty or engaged in bad faith and unfair dealing and other contractual breaches based on various fact patterns. To support those legal conclusions, minority owners will seek to weave a tapestry of facts showing that the majority regularly or systematically, or at least occasionally, favored itself over the best interests of the business or the minority...
Affiliate agreements. Minority owners seeking to challenge a majority owner’s conduct may be entitled to carefully scrutinize all contracts, agreements and other arrangements between the business and suppliers, customers, consultants and other businesses owned or operated by the majority. The fairness of the price, comparative quality of performance and openness of the bidding for the affiliated company’s goods and services are often subject to criticism...
Salaries, bonuses. Similar to issues raised under affiliate agreements, compensation arrangements with key employees, particularly those employees who are majority owners or related to majority owners, will be subject to scrutiny on the same basis...
Distributions of excess cash vs. reinvestment. The different priorities of majority and minority owners are magnified in the area of a privately held business...Majority owners want the untrammeled flexibility to reinvest the free cash in the business, buy additional businesses (whether or not in the same line of business as the existing business) or make distributions to owners...while the minority...often looks to the business as a source of cash...
Sale of business and structure. The minority owner may challenge all aspects, substantive and procedural, of the ultimate sale of the business. Besides the obvious substantive areas for challenge such as the timing (either too soon or too late) and the price and payment terms, minority owners may examine other aspects of the transaction that allegedly favor the majority. Substantive areas often challenged for their alleged mischief include:
• allocations of the sale price to noncompete and consulting and similar arrangements in favor of the majority (thereby reducing the net consideration available to the minority),
• other post-closing arrangements between the buyer and the majority (such as leases or purchase-and-supply contracts) and
• the overall tax structure and financing of the transaction...
Business focus, priorities. A minority owner, whether wanting to make mischief or fervently convinced of its position, will scrutinize and criticize the business priorities and focuses of the majority. Frequent areas of dispute involve new business opportunities, geographic areas of sale, distribution practices, treatment of disappointing product lines, joint ventures or outsourcing and hiring or retaining key personnel...
Dissenters’ rights on sale. While dissenters’ rights are a creature of and will vary with state law, they typically provide grounds for challenges to the fairness of the price of the sale or merger transaction. Absent a showing of fraud or other egregious abuses, dissenter rights statutes will not allow a minority owner to block a transaction, but rather, to seek a higher price for its shares...
Information rights....Two major implications flow from such disclosure of information. First, to the extent that "knowledge is power," a minority owner may be better equipped to ask questions, challenge entity action and cause unwanted delays and confrontation. Second, dissemination of information increases the risk that it will be disclosed to competitors or those who could otherwise use the information to the entity’s detriment...
Participation rights. Minority owners frequently try to expand their rights to participate in the affairs of the business in a manner disproportionate to their minority position. They may seek rights to approve fundamental transactions through super-majority thresholds for any number of matters. These may include the right to approve a sale, major acquisitions, budgets, capital spending, borrowing, compensations, hiring and firing of key personnel and a litany of other areas...
Future opportunity rights. A majority owner may desire to expand the business — or buy a competing or complementary line — by forming a new entity in which the minority does not participate, and thereby exclude the minority from benefiting from this new opportunity. This raises issues such as affiliated entanglements discussed above, the loyalty of the majority to the existing business, breach of fiduciary duty and usurping corporate opportunity...
Co-sale rights. Minority owners...will attempt to assure the right to sell their interests in the business at the same time, and on the same terms, as the majority...These "tag-along" rights...may impinge on the majority’s flexibility if:
• it desires to reap a premium for itself, at the expense of the minority, for possessing control of the business,
• it desires to sell, or the buyers desire to buy, only a portion of its interests and, therefore, the minority’s tag-along rights will reduce the majority’s sale proceeds accordingly or
• certain procedural requirements in the tag-along process are not followed and render the sale susceptible to challenge.
Conversely, if a buyer desires to purchase all ownership interests in a business, the minority’s refusal may result in a blocked sale or reduced price...
Redemption rights....Obligations to repurchase the minority’s interests could affect the business’ free cash flow and divert resources from investment in more productive activities, or distributions to shareholders, to recapitalization...
This Wikipedia entry explains:
"The corporate law concept of piercing (lifting) the corporate veil describes a legal decision where a shareholder of a corporation is held personally liable for the debts or liabilities of the corporation despite the general principle that those persons are immune from suits in contract or tort that otherwise would hold only the corporation liable. This doctrine is also known as 'disregarding the corporate entity'."
This article, Determining Your Company's Legal Structure, contains a good overview of the options for the legal structure of your business and the following tips for avoiding "veil piercing" claims:
Be sure that you always conduct business through and in the name of your entity rather than in your own name (unless you are a sole proprietor). Failure to follow the rules for the entity allows creditors to try to deny you liability protection because you did not really conduct business as an entity.Found via this Kauffman eVenturing post.
Always have the entity adopt resolutions to authorize action, even if there is only a "ratification" after the fact.
Use the proper form of entity signature by always signing documents in representative capacity as an agent of your entity: "XYZ LLC, by John Q. Smith, Managing Member."
Use proper signs, advertisements and business cards showing an entity rather than an individual (e.g., "John Smith, President, ABC, Inc." rather than "John Smith, Owner/Proprietor").
Use proper fictitious name filings.
Avoid commingling your business and personal funds in the same bank account.
Pay business and personal bills from separate accounts.
Maintain separate personal and business bank accounts.
Prepare notes and other documentation of all loans between the business and its owners.
Your entity must have a minimum capitalization reasonably adequate for the business to be conducted. Insurance counts.
Don't sign contracts or make commitments for the business until you have filed the correct papers to organize it, since you will be personally liable. The liability shield of the corporation or LLC does not exist until the entity exists through a filing in the state capital.
Laurel Delaney links to a chapter from her book, Start and Run a Profitable Exporting Business, entitled, "Methods of Payment: Terms, Conditions, and Alternative Financing Sources for Export Sales," [pdf file] explaining how to ensure payment for export sales and the various complicated methods for doing so.
See this post from China Law Blog for active links
"And then I saw this, the random color splashed all around. No one had painted it and still it was so beautiful. I guess the beauty of randomness."
-Soumya Soumata speaking about this photo taken yesterday at the Three Rivers Arts Festival and part of the Pittsburgh Pool on Flickr.
The photo also demonstrates something about living: Open to possibilities - You find what you look for - Look for beauty and you find it - Be ready.
"There is nothing more practical than sound thinking. No matter what your circumstance or goals, no matter where you are, or what problems you face, you are better off if your thinking is skilled. As a manager, leader, employee, citizen, lover, friend, parent — in every realm and situation of your life — good thinking pays off. Poor thinking, in turn, inevitably causes problems, wastes time and energy, engenders frustration and pain....
Consider the following key ideas, which, when applied, result in a mind practicing skilled thinking - sticking to the point (thinking with relevance), questioning deeply, and striving to be more reasonable...
1. Clarify Your Thinking
Be on the look-out for vague, fuzzy, formless, blurred thinking. Try to figure out the real meaning of what people are saying...Explain your understanding of an issue to someone else to help clarify it in your own mind. Practice summarizing in your own words what others say. Then ask them if you understood them correctly... When you cannot do this to their satisfaction, you don’t really understand what they said. When they cannot summarize what you have said to your satisfaction, they don’t really understand what you said. Try it. See what happens.
Strategies for Clarifying Your Thinking
-State one point at a time
-Elaborate on what you mean
-Give examples that connect your thoughts to life experiences
-Use analogies and metaphors to help people connect your ideas to a variety of things they already understand...
2. Stick to the Point...
When thinking is relevant, it is focused on the main task at hand. It selects what is germane, pertinent, and related. It is on the alert for everything that connects to the issue. It sets aside what is immaterial, inappropriate, extraneous, and beside the point...
Ask These Questions to Make Sure
Thinking is Focused on What is Relevant
-Am I focused on the main problem or task?
-How is this connected? How is that?
-Does my information directly relate to the problem or task?
-Where do I need to focus my attention?
-Are we being diverted to unrelated matters?
-Am I failing to consider relevant viewpoints?
-How is your point relevant to the issue we are addressing?
-What facts are actually going to help us answer the question? What considerations should be set aside?
-Does this truly bear on the question? How does it connect?
3. Question Questions
Examine the extent to which you are a questioner, or simply one who accepts the definitions of situations given by others...Good thinkers routinely ask questions in order to understand and effectively deal with the world around them. They question the status quo. They know that things are often different from the way they are presented. Their questions penetrate images, masks, fronts, and propaganda. Their questions make real problems explicit and discipline their thinking through those problems. If you become a student of questions, you can learn to ask powerful questions that lead to a deeper and more fulfilling life. Your questions become more basic, essential, and deep...
4. Be Reasonable...
Notice when you are unwilling to listen to the views of others, when you simply see yourself as right and others as wrong. Ask yourself at those moments whether their views might have any merit... One of the hallmarks of a critical thinker is the disposition to change one’s mind when given good reason to change. Good thinkers want to change their thinking when they discover better thinking. They can be moved by reason. Yet, comparatively few people are reasonable. Few are willing to change their minds once set. Few are willing to suspend their beliefs to fully hear the views of those with which they disagree. How would you rate yourself?..."
Read much more in this excellent article from CriticalThinking.org from which the foregoing was quoted.
The Three Rivers Arts Festival opens today and kicks off summer in Pittsburgh by filling downtown streets and plazas in the city with art and performance. Here is the evening concert lineup at the Stanwix Triangle Stage
The following evening concerts start at 7:30pm Monday-Saturday, 6:00pm on Sundays, except where noted. All shows are free and open to the public.
Fri, June 1
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Sat, June 2
Martin Sextonwith special guest
Jon Check at 6pm
Sun, June 3
Ozomatli
Mon, June 4
Black Moth Super Rainbow at 8:30pm
Race the Ghost at 7:30pm
Jack Wilson and Dums at 6:30pm
Tues, June 5
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals
Weds, June 6
Lotus
Thurs, June 7
Roomful of Blues
Fri, June 8
Cowboy Junkiessponsored by Point Park University
Sat, June 9
Koko Taylorwith special guest
Willi Tri Blues Band at 6pm sponsored by Point Park University
Sun, June 10
Los Lonely Boyssponsored by Point Park University
Mon, June 11
Stephen Pellegrino
Tues, June 12
Ike Reilly Assassination at 8pmwith special guest
Earl Greyhound at 7pm
Weds, June 13
The Avett Brothers
Thurs, June 14
Joe Bonamassa
Fri, June 15
Jackie Greene
Sat, June 16
Rickie Lee Joneswith special guest
Lohio at 6pm
Sun, June 17
Spyro Gyrawith special guest
Rodney McCoy at 5pm sponsored by Mellon Financial Corporation
"Change Management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of change processes, to achieve the required outcomes, and to realize the change effectively within the individual change agent, the inner team, and the wider system.
"There are a multitude of concepts on Change Management and it is very difficult to distil a common denominator from all the sources that are applying the phrase to their mental maps of organizational development. But obviously there is a tight connection with the concept of learning organizations. Only if organizations and individuals within organizations learn, they will able to master a positive change.
"In other words, change is the result from an organizational learning process that centres around the questions: 'In order to sustain and grow as an organization and as individuals within; what are the procedures, what is the know-how we need to maintain and where do we need to change?', and, 'How can we manage a change, that is in harmony with the values we hold as individuals and as organizations?'
"Change Management has also to be seen in the light of the discussion on Knowledge Management, which took several turns during the nineties. When the establishment of an intranet was suddenly feasible to any large organization, IT and management scientists declared the beginning of the 'knowledge society'.
"The immature anticipation of knowledge management was that every member of an organization would be highly motivated to share information through a common platform and a quality improvement process would be enabled more or less by itself. It took only a couple of years to realize that this assumption was false. Up to now, there are no examples of a company in which transformational learning is facilitated by an IT system only, because the early protagonists forgot that information does not equal knowledge and that human knowledge is in the muscles of the persons who make the parts of a larger system.
"Back to square one. How (and whether at all) change can be "managed" or facilitated?..."
Are you personally ready for change? Is your team in serious need of new ways to work together? How can your organization deal with a change project which lacks focus or direction? Do you want to know why change is inevitable but hard to achieve? Do you want to surf on the waves of change?
You will find some of the answers to your questions in the Change Management Toolbook, a collection of more than 120 tools, methods and strategies which you can apply during different stages of personal, team and organizational development, in training, facilitation and consulting. It is divided in three principle sections: Self, Team and Larger System. You may wisht to begin with Introduction to Change Management from which the quoted portions of the foregoing were taken.
"Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. There are many stories as to its actual beginnings, with over two dozen cities and towns laying claim to being the birthplace of Memorial Day. There is also evidence that organized women's groups in the South were decorating graves before the end of the Civil War: a hymn published in 1867, "Kneel Where Our Loves are Sleeping" by Nella L. Sweet carried the dedication "To The Ladies of the South who are Decorating the Graves of the Confederate Dead" (Source: Duke University's Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920).
"While Waterloo N.Y. was officially declared the birthplace of Memorial Day by President Lyndon Johnson in May 1966, it's difficult to prove conclusively the origins of the day. It is more likely that it had many separate beginnings; each of those towns and every planned or spontaneous gathering of people to honor the war dead in the 1860's tapped into the general human need to honor our dead, each contributed honorably to the growing movement that culminated in Gen Logan giving his official proclamation in 1868. It is not important who was the very first, what is important is that Memorial Day was established. Memorial Day is not about division. It is about reconciliation; it is about coming together to honor those who gave their all.
"Memorial Day was officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 by General John Logan, national commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, in his General Order No. 11, and was first observed on 30 May 1868, when flowers were placed on the graves of Union and Confederate soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery..."
From Memorial Day History
"Memorial Day is much more than a three-day weekend that marks the beginning of summer. To many people, especially the nation's thousands of combat veterans, this day, which has a history stretching back all the way to the Civil War, is an important reminder of those who died in the service of their country.
"Uncover the interesting history of the holiday we now call Memorial Day. Discover little-known facts about America's Wars and stop by the Veterans Forum message boards to share your views with veterans, their loved ones and fellow history buffs" at this history.com site.
The picture above right is one I took at the 2007 Memorial Day Parade in Sewickley Pennsylvania.
The Business Proof of Concept Test from startup venture toolbox is designed to explore whether the entrepreneur has thought through the business concept from a market size, intellectual property, human resources needs, competitive position and financial requirements point of view. The outputs from the test can be used as the basis for a business plan. The test is the equivalent of an investor's short list of important questions for analyzing whether to invest in the concept. By focusing on these questions early, the entrepreneur can resolve issues critical for success early on.
"Venture funding works like gears. A typical startup goes through several rounds of funding, and at each round you want to take just enough money to reach the speed where you can shift into the next gear. Few startups get it quite right. Many are underfunded. A few are overfunded, which is like trying to start driving in third gear...
Friends and Family
A lot of startups get their first funding from friends and family...The advantage of raising money from friends and family is that they're easy to find. You already know them. There are three main disadvantages: you mix together your business and personal life; they will probably not be as well connected as angels or venture firms; and they may not be accredited investors, which could complicate your life later...
Consulting
Another way to fund a startup is to get a job. The best sort of job is a consulting project in which you can build whatever software you wanted to sell as a startup. Then you can gradually transform yourself from a consulting company into a product company, and have your clients pay your development expenses...
Angel Investors
Angels are individual rich people. The word was first used for backers of Broadway plays, but now applies to individual investors generally. Angels who've made money in technology are preferable, for two reasons: they understand your situation, and they're a source of contacts and advice. The contacts and advice can be more important than the money...
With angels we're now talking about venture funding proper, so it's time to introduce the concept of exit strategy. Younger would-be founders are often surprised that investors expect them either to sell the company or go public. The reason is that investors need to get their capital back. They'll only consider companies that have an exit strategy-- meaning companies that could get bought or go public...
Another concept we need to introduce now is valuation. When someone buys shares in a company, that implicitly establishes a value for it. If someone pays $20,000 for 10% of a company, the company is in theory worth $200,000. I say "in theory" because in early stage investing, valuations are voodoo. As a company gets more established, its valuation gets closer to an actual market value. But in a newly founded startup, the valuation number is just an artifact of the respective contributions of everyone involved...
The best way to find angel investors is through personal introductions. You could try to cold-call angel groups near you, but angels, like VCs, will pay more attention to deals recommended by someone they respect.
Deal terms with angels vary a lot. There are no generally accepted standards. Sometimes angels' deal terms are as fearsome as VCs'. Other angels, particularly in the earliest stages, will invest based on a two-page agreement...
The key to closing deals is never to stop pursuing alternatives. When an investor says he wants to invest in you, or an acquirer says they want to buy you, don't believe it till you get the check. Your natural tendency when an investor says yes will be to relax and go back to writing code. Alas, you can't; you have to keep looking for more investors, if only to get this one to act.
Seed Funding Firms
Seed firms are like angels in that they invest relatively small amounts at early stages, but like VCs in that they're companies that do it as a business, rather than individuals making occasional investments on the side...
Seed firms and angel investors generally want to invest in the initial phases of a startup, then hand them off to VC firms for the next round. Occasionally startups go from seed funding direct to acquisition...
Venture Capital Funds
VC firms are like seed firms in that they're actual companies, but they invest other people's money, and much larger amounts of it. VC investments average several million dollars. So they tend to come later in the life of a startup, are harder to get, and come with tougher terms...
Because VCs invest large amounts, the money comes with more restrictions. Most only come into effect if the company gets into trouble. For example, VCs generally write it into the deal that in any sale, they get their investment back first...
The most noticeable change when a startup takes serious funding is that the founders will no longer have complete control...
Like angels, VCs prefer to invest in deals that come to them through people they know. So while nearly all VC funds have some address you can send your business plan to, VCs privately admit the chance of getting funding by this route is near zero...
So when do you approach VCs? When you can convince them. If the founders have impressive resumes and the idea isn't hard to understand, you could approach VCs quite early. Whereas if the founders are unknown and the idea is very novel, you might have to launch the thing and show that users loved it before VCs would be convinced...
Read much more in How to Fund a Startup by Paul Graham from which the foregoing was quoted.
This mental_floss magazine post waxes eloquently on why our favorite Pittsburgher, Mister Rogers, was the best neighbor ever. It is worth reading as are Tom Junod’s wonderful profile of Fred Rogers and his obituary for him, links to which are available from the Mental Floss post. The top 15 reasons why Fred Rodgers was the best are:
1. Even Koko the Gorilla loved him...
2. He Made Thieves Think Twice
According to a TV Guide piece on him, Fred Rogers drove a plain old Impala for years. One day, however, the car was stolen from the street near the TV station. When Rogers filed a police report, the story was picked up by every newspaper, radio and media outlet around town. Amazingly, within 48 hours the car was left in the exact spot where it was taken from, with an apology on the dashboard. It read, “If we’d known it was yours, we never would have taken it.”
3. Mr. Rodgers didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t eat the flesh of any animals, and was extremely disciplined in his daily routine and maintained his weight at 143 pounds for the last 30 years of his life..."Rogers came 'to see that number as a gift… because, as he says, 'the number 143 means ‘I love you.’ It takes one letter to say ‘I’ and four letters to say ‘love’ and three letters to say ‘you.’ One hundred and forty-three.”
4. He Saved Both Public Television and the VCR...
5. He Might Have Been the Most Tolerant American Ever...
6. He Was Genuinely Curious about Others...
7. He was Color-blind...
8. He Could Make a Subway Car full of Strangers Sing...
9. He got into TV because he hated TV...
10. He was an Ivy League Dropout...[Not sure about this one.]
11. He composed all the songs on the show, and over 200 tunes.
12. He was a perfectionist, and disliked ad libbing. He felt he owed it to children to make sure every word on his show was thought out.
13. Michael Keaton got his start on the show as an assistant– helping puppeteer and operate the trolley.
14. Several characters on the show are named for his family...
15. The sweaters. Every one of the cardigans he wore on the show had been hand-knit by his mother.
"The thoughts that go through your mind, moment by moment, have a significant impact on how your brain works... Happy, hopeful thoughts have an overall calming effect on the brain, while negative thoughts inflame brain areas often involved with depression and anxiety. Your thoughts matter..."
So states Dr. Daniel G. Amen in this excerpt from the book, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life" in which Dr. Amen offers 7 ways to enhance the functioning of your own brain and enhance your life.
Dr. Amen identifies four species of ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) that can invade your brain, distort incoming information to make you feel bad:
"Mind reading --- predicting you know that another person is thinking something negative about you without them telling you...
Fortune telling -- predicting a bad outcome to a situation before it has occurred...Unconsciously, predicting failure will often cause failure...
Always or never thinking - this is where you think in words like always, never, every time, or everyone...
Guilt beatings -- being overrun by thoughts of "I should have done... I'm bad because…. I must do better at… I have to…). Guilt is powerful at making us feel bad. It is a lousy motivator of behavior.
Dr. Amen continues:
"You do not have to believe every thought that goes through your head. It's important to think about your thoughts to see if they help you or they hurt you. Unfortunately, if you never challenge your thoughts you just "believe them" as if they were true. ANTs can take over and infest your brain. Develop an internal anteater to hunt down and devour the negative thoughts that are ruining your life...
You can learn how to change your thoughts and optimize your brain. One way to learn how to change your thoughts is to notice them when they are negative and talk back to them. If you can correct negative thoughts, you take away their power over you. When you think a negative thought without challenging it, your mind believes it and your brain reacts to it...."
The other steps Dr. Amen recommends to optimize your brain include:
1. Protect Your Brain...from injury, pollution, sleep deprivation, and stress...
2. Feed Your Brain...lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and foods rich in omega 3 fatty acids (large cold water fish, such as tuna and salmon, walnuts, Brazil nuts, olive oil, and canola oil)...
3. Work Your Brain
Your brain is like a muscle. The more you use it, the more you can use it. Every time you learn something new your brain makes a new connection. Learning enhances blood flow and activity in the brain. If you go for long periods without learning something new you start to lose some of the connections in the brain and you begin to struggle more with memory and learning...
4. Make Love For Your Brain..
Appropriate sex is one of the keys to the brain's fountain of youth.
5. Develop A "Concert State" For Your Brain..."a relaxed body with a sharp, clear mind," much as you would experience at an exhilarating symphony. Achieving this state requires two simultaneous skills: deep relaxation and focus...
A technique for developing clear focus is the "One Page Miracle." On one piece of paper write down the following headings:
-relationships,
-work/school
-money
-physical health
-emotional health
-spiritual health.
Next to each heading write down what you want in each area. For example, under relationships, "I want to have a kind, loving, connected relationship with my children." When you finish writing all of your goals make multiple copies of it and prominently display it where you can see it several times each day. Frequently ask yourself, "Is my behavior getting me what I want?" This exercise helps to keep you focused on the things that are most important in your life...
6. Treat Brain Problems Early...
"Following are ten clues which will help you to discover your life purpose.
Clue No. 1: What do you love to do?...Another way to think about this clue is: what would you do even if you were not paid to do it?
Clue No. 2: What parts of your present job or life activities do you thoroughly enjoy?...
Clue No. 3: What do you naturally do well?...
Clue No. 4: What are your ten greatest successes to date (in your eyes)?...
Clue No. 5: Is there a cause about which you feel passionate?...
Clue No. 6: What are the ten most important lessons you have learned in your life?...
Clue No. 7: Are there some issues or perceived problems that have occurred over and over again?...
Clue No. 8: What do you daydream about doing?...
Clue No. 9: Imagine you are writing your epitaph. What things do you want to be remembered for at the end of your life?...
Clue No. 10: What would you do if you knew you could not fail?...
Taking the answers to the 10 clues, the next step is to notice any themes in the answers, e.g., do many of them relate to being with people in a particular way, or to solving problems or working with your hands? Those themes can then be distilled down into an ‘essence,’ the core of your purpose that is relatively unchanging, and the ‘expression,’ or the ways in which that purpose is being expressed (or could be!) in your life now. Here’s an example: ‘My life purpose is to promote harmony and balance through working as a mediator, parenting my children to live nonviolently, and volunteering in my community association.’ What is your life purpose?..."
Read more in this article by Marcia A. Bench from which the foregoing is quoted.
Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
