The Anti-Social Network continues the exploits of Adam and Amelia Dory and their quest to build Doreye, their Silicon Valley tech startup. If you enjoyed the first installment, The Start-Up, you will enjoy the The Anti-Social Network equally if not more so than the first. The Anti-Social Network stays true to the fundamentals which made [...]

One challenge that our team had to overcome with a company was to determine the amount of equity to allocate to our first executive non-founder new hire. With the founding team, considering that we all started this particular company at the same time and each brought a unique perspective, skill set and experience to the [...]

“The Start-Up” is the first fictional book I have read in years and it was very much worth my time. The first in a three part arc, “The Start-Up” is an intriguing novella reminiscent of “The Accidental Billionaires” but with a Silicon Valley flair. The story takes place in Silicon Valley and follows the adventures [...]

Napoleon Hill identifies eleven major attributes of leadership as presented in “Think And Grow Rich”: 1. UNWAVERING COURAGE based upon knowledge of self and one’s occupation. No follower wishes to be dominated by a leader who lacks self-confidence and courage. No intelligent follower will be dominated by such a leader for very long. 2. SELF-CONTROL. [...]

There are two types of knowledge – general and specialized knowledge. General knowledge, no matter how great in quantity or variety it may be, is of but little use in the accumulation of money. Knowledge will not attract money unless it is organized and intelligently directed through practical plans of action to the definite end [...]

Napoleon Hill describes faith as the burning desire to succeed. He further outlines faith as follows: 1. FAITH is the ‘eternal elixir’ which gives life, power, and action to the impulse of thought! 2. FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches! 3. FAITH is the basis of all ‘miracles’ and mysteries that [...]

My first job at 14 years old was at a grocery store in Ohio. During this time I remember one of my older co-workers recommending that I read a book called “Think And Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. Unfortunately at that point in my life I didn’t take the advice, but the title stuck with [...]

Two graphs caught my attention while reading “Valuing Early Stage And Venture-Backed Companies.” These graphs relate to the amount of money invested by venture capitalists by year and the amount of venture capital money available by year. I have reproduced both graphs here. The first illustrates venture capital commitments by year which is shown in [...]

Valuation of a late stage company is a fairly straightforward process with many quantifiable metrics available that translate to the overall value of the business. Early stage companies are trickier. Commonly an early stage company does not have revenue or even a repeatable business model, however this does not translate to not having value. Early [...]

In previous articles we had discussed the importance of a vision and how to become a visionary leader, mainly through the principles of Tribal Leadership. Today we will discuss the concept of a visionary company. Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, the authors of “Built To Last” define a visionary company as follows: “Visionary companies are [...]