Operations

6 strategies to hiring for startups Hiring your first employees not only sets the tone for your company culture but also has a direct impact on business success and outcomes, which is why having a world class hiring strategy for early-stage startups is crucial. Below we’ll cover the following topics to help you hire and attract top talent: How to set a strategy to attract top talent What to key traits you should look for in your first hires Identifying whether a candidate has the right hard and soft skills Leveraging onboarding to not only ramp but retain talent Additional resources to help with your recruiting efforts Check out how Malcolm Burenstam Linder, CEO and Co-Founder of Alva Labs, suggests that founders approach hiring their first employees below: Attract Top Talent Through Storytelling This should start at the candidate’s first touchpoint with your company, such as the careers page and job description. Crafting a story around why anyone should want to join your company should go beyond just the mission and vision, to feel more personal than what you might share with your customers or stakeholders. In the interview you can go even deeper and share why you specifically joined or started the company. Try to speak to the points which you think would personally resonate most with the candidate you’re interviewing. Many startups are unable to be competitive in salary compared to other major players, but the key is to find the unique things within your company that you can leverage such as an inspiring mission or being a part of something bound to have success. This can be even more exciting and convincing than a larger paycheck. Other things to highlight as one of the perks of joining early could be job advancement and stock options. “Selling the vision. Selling the idea that their stock would be worth so much. Selling myself as an amazing leader that they definitely wanted to work with. Just being authentic. Helping them understand why I was doing what I was doing. Why I was passionate about it and why I would be a good human being for them to work with and call their colleague.” Source Plan For and Attract Diverse Candidates Having diversity within your team is only possible if you’re presenting your company in a way that attracts a wide range of profiles. Creating a diverse funnel requires you to craft your job descriptions and careers page in a way where the message, language, and images you choose speaks to a broader spectrum of candidates. Think through and analyze how your employees are being represented on your website, as well as if your perks and benefits are inclusive to the needs of all potential candidates regarding gender, sexual orientation, race, social class and background. Hiring From Your Network Social media (such as twitter and LinkedIn) is one way to leverage your personal network for trusted referrals. This can be a great resource when it comes to recruiting- especially when you have limited resources such as access to an inhouse or external recruiter. Often some of the best candidates are referrals, since you have more insight to how they work and there is already a certain level of trust and comfort established. Something to be aware of when sourcing this way is that you continue to keep diversity top of mind. Hiring For a Fluid Organizational Structure and Changing Roles Your company and organizational structure will likely be continuously changing, which is why it’s often advisable to only hire for the next 6-12 months rather than having a long term solution mindset. Future proof roles by filling them with people who will be able to handle your current needs but are also able and willing to be flexible with new tasks and responsibilities, as the needs of the company change. This will make pivots and experimenting with new ideas and projects easier. It is important to communicate this in the interview process to make sure that the candidate is prepared and hopefully excited by potential change. For those who haven’t worked in early-stage startups before, it’s good for them to know that this is normal for companies who grow quickly and is a sign of success, which provides a lot of opportunities for them to grow within and advance professionally. Contract to Hire vs Project to Hire or Part-time Hiring employees full time doesn’t need to be your only option, especially early on when your resources can be limited. Other options include Project to Hire and Part- Time employees. If you only have a few one-off projects that you don’t want to add to the workload of your existing employees or hire full-time for, consider contracting other experts in the space. Even though this option might seem more costly than completing these tasks internally- it could actually save you in the long run and lead to better outcomes. For example if someone on your team had to learn a new process or skill set to complete this task, it would cost you more in the additional time it would take for them than someone with previous know how. Good resources for hiring contracted professionals are through websites such as Upwork and fiverr. Interviewing Having a formal interview process will not only benefit you but is important for your candidates as well. Start by writing clear, transparent, personable, and honest job descriptions. Know what you’re looking for- What are the must haves, important/ nice to haves, and bonus points. Don’t go at it alone- Try to involve more team members, especially the ones who will be working directly with the applicant. 7 things to look for in your first hire High Pain Tolerance and Grit Working in a startup means there’s a lot of experimentation that includes failing, breaking things, and shots in the dark that need to happen until you can find solutions that work. This requires being risk averse and not fearing failure, but rather welcoming it (when needed) and seeing it as an opportunity that will lead you to succeed and solve problems. When failure occurs your ideal candidate would quickly recover from these situations, get back up, course correct, and keep running with their new learnings top of mind. Look for someone who also wants to embrace or likes the start up company culture, which can have a lot of ups and downs. They should also be comfortable without having clear rules or ways of doing things and are ok to have the power to create these for the company as they go. Cultural Fit When deciding between candidates think- who would I rather be stuck in the car with? Your first hires are the ones you will likely be working with most closely and want to be onboard for a while. This means how well you get along with them vs how competent they are should be equally important. Attitude Having a positive attitude is everything. A negative person on board can bring an entire team down and is something you don’t want your customers to associate your company with. Positivity is something that people inherently have or not. It’s not anything you can force upon, so it’s a perk to have someone whose common nature is to see situations in an optimistic light. This is also an important attribute for creative problem solving. Entrepreneurial Mindset Having employees that want/ are capable of growing your company and scaling internal processes can provide value in the short and long term. Candidates with this mindset will often take more ownership of their projects and have an intrinsic drive to see the company succeed. To help them maximize their potential it’s important for the executive team to give trust and the freedom to drive their set initiatives forward. Generalists & Potential > Skill Set Having generalists on your team is crucial since working in a startup often means there’s a lot of work to be done with not much resources. So it’s advantageous to have people who are not only comfortable with but excited by the idea of wearing multiple hats. As well, finding someone who has the desire to learn and confidence to execute is more important than having prior knowledge and experience in a given area. In a company of 10 people, each will have to take on projects outside of their realm of expertise. Look for candidates who are looking to learn from others and are capable of finding the needed resources to do this- internally and externally. Hiring Candidates with Leadership Potential Often your first hires will end up being your longest employees and will likely have the most knowledge about your product/ company. This makes them a natural fit to develop into a team lead in their division, or even a possible cofounder, as the company grows. Look for attributes which would lend to good leadership such as a high EQ/ empathy, communication skills, decisiveness, and creativity. Another thing to look out for is the ability for the candidate to scale the company to where you want to be in the future. Open to Feedback and Self Improvement Situations and how we interact with one another can only improve when we are upfront with our expectations and clearly communicate this. Look for candidates who not only embrace feedback but want it. If people are defensive or have a hard time communicating what needs to be changed or done, it’s harder to move towards positive outcomes. Encourage a company culture which values clear, transparent, and empathetic communication. Suggest your employees to read Radical Candor to help with this. How to hire your first 10 startup employees Various roles require different skill sets and personality traits to help the candidate succeed. For instance someone working for a startup in a customer facing position will often encounter people telling them no, not respond to their emails, or have to endure negative product feedback. So you’ll want someone who is able to put out fires and keep pushing forward with the same motivation they had before their first no. Look out for those who can own their mistakes as well as know when and how to apologize. These traits can help customers empathize and move forward from a given problem. A great way to test for how well a candidate in a given role might approach a problem or topic is through Work Product Interviews. By choosing a current project you’re able to see how each candidate would approach it and give you additional brainpower to work through it. When choosing this approach it’s advisable to pay candidates for their time. If you’re not willing to pay it is best to choose a project that will not be used as a best practice. Related resource: 9 Signs It’s Time To Hire in a Startup Leadership When hiring the earliest leaders for your startup it is vital to be diligent during the interview process. These early leaders will set the tone for the culture and future hires at your organization. On top of being a culture fit, you will want to ensure they are capable of scaling their business unit and being a sounding board for making strategic decisions. Product Generally speaking the founder or CEO acts as the “product person” initially at a startup. As the company and product begin to mature, it is time to bring on product leaders and individuals to help take the product to next level. As with any of your first 10 hires you will want to make sure a product leader can work autonomously. As your time turns to supporting other parts of the organization, being able to have a product leader to lean on is essential. Sales, Customer Success, and Marketing Hiring for the business units begins to pickup after making your core hires. To learn more about hiring for customer success team members, check out our guide here. To learn more about making your first sales hires, check out this post. Onboarding Tips to Ensure They Stay A factor to consider if people aren’t succeeding in their role is a lack of active feedback and/ or clear expectations. They might not realize that the work they are producing isn’t meeting your standards if there is no clear and structured communication as well as KPI’s or goals set forth. Make sure to include opportunities for active and regular feedback loops during their onboarding in the first few months. This will help shape the work they produce, how well they adjust to organizational needs, and give them assurance of where they stand. If you need to let someone go or if an employee isn’t satisfied- it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Having a Well Defined Training Plan During Onboarding Setting clear expectations for the role- What are their responsibilities and what might you expect them to achieve and execute on. Goal setting- Setting weekly goals for the first 3 weeks and then monthly for the first 3 months is a good way to start. Giving ownership- Allowing someone to feel they have ownership gives them the motivation to take on responsibility and demonstrates trust. The Buddy System Being a new employee within a company, no matter how small it is, can feel daunting and sometimes isolating. Pairing new hires with an existing team member creates new social connections amongst your employees. This also helps with cross functional team work as well as employee happiness. New hires should feel they can not only turn to their buddy for questions but is also someone they can have a (virtual) lunch or coffee with. This is also an opportunity for them to be filled in on company culture and other things that might not have been covered in the initial onboarding. Startup Hiring Resources Background checks The things you might want to check for could vary on the role and the company. Besides calling, emailing or checking LinkedIn references, you could also use online background checks such as ClearChecks.com Sourcing Services vs. Recruiters Without having someone dedicated to HR it can be difficult to source talent which is why using websites that give you access to a curated pool of talent can be a good option. Owning recruiting for your 25+ hires, although difficult, is actually important as it allows you to shape your company culture which is created through the personality traits and profiles of your first employees. Possible websites to source tech talent in which you can apply to candidates directly are Hired.com, Talent.io, or Honeypot.io. Recruiting Software Breezy.hr is a great example of an end-to-end recruiting software that can help to manage things like sourcing, candidate pipeline, streamlining communication and interview scheduling. At the end of the day startups are in a constant competition for top talent. By having a system in place to source, interview, hire, onboard, and retain employees your odds of success as a company will be higher. To learn more about hiring for your startup, check out our related posts here. Related resources: The Top 9 Social Media Startups Why the Chief of Staff is Important for a Startup

On episode 11 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Lolita Taub of Community Fund and Eric Bahn of Hustle Fund. Eric and Lolita recently launched The First Pitches Podcast “where famous founders share the first version of their pitch.” Combined with the fact that they are both investors in early stage startups it is fair to say they’ve seen their fair share of fundraising pitches. We could not think of a better one-two punch to help founders improve their storytelling and fundraising. About Lolita & Eric Lolita and Eric breakdown what they’ve learned from their podcast and investor roles to give founders actionable advice to kick start their next fundraise. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Lolita & Eric. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Lolita & Eric The importance of Twitter when it comes to networking and fundraising If a founder has to be an expert in a subject for them to be funded How to nail a first impression with investors How they view and analyze a deck in the pre-seed/seed stages What makes a great first pitch Why they care about what metrics a founder is measuring Related Resources First Pitches Podcast Lolita’s Twitter Eric’s Twitter Hustle Fund Community Fund The Founders Forward is Produced by Visible Our platforms helps thousands of founders update investors, track key metrics, and raise capital. Try Visible free for 14 days.

On episode 10 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Jim McKelvey, Co-Founder of Square. The now publicly traded company with a $100B+ market cap has humble beginnings dating back to Jim and his time in a glass studio. Jim recently published his book, The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time, that studies how Square managed to thrive and beat Amazon and draws on similar stories from companies like Southwest and Ikea. About Jim Square and Jim used a series of “innovation stacks” to not only beat Amazon but to take them to the high flying public company they are today. Jim has a deep passion for entrepreneurship and innovation that comes across as we discuss his journey building Square. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Jim. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Jim How the idea for Square was started How Jim started his relationship with Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square What it means to be an entrepreneur vs. business person What Southwest and Square have in common What an innovation stack is How Jim views venture capital How and why businesses copy Related Resources Jim’s Twitter Jim’s LinkedIn The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time

In 2020 we launched the Founders Forward Podcast. The goal of the podcast is to enable founders to learn from their peers and leaders that have been there before. Over the last 7 weeks our CEO, Mike Preuss, has interviewed a different founder or startup leader every week. Related Resource: 11 Venture Capital Podcasts You Need to Check Out Here are some of our favorite quotes and takeaways from the first 7 interviews: Lindsay Tjepkema, Founder of Casted Our first episode of the Founders Forward was with Lindsay Tjepkema. Considering she is a podcasting expert, we figured there could not be a better first guest. We chat all things podcasting and alternative media types. However one of the tidbits we found most interesting was Lindsay’s outlook on venture fundraising. Oftentimes fundraising can be a frustrating journey but Lindsay views the process as an opportunity to promote her business and tell her company’s story. Give the full episode a listen here. Amanda Goetz, Founder of House of Wise House of Wise is Amanda’s second go as a startup founder. However things are no less difficult than her first time around. Her first journey was spent worrying about legal aspects and the basics of getting her business running. That was easy with House of Wise but she has faced new challenges (and opportunities) during her second journey. Give the full episode a listen here. Jeff Kahn, Founder of Rise Science Jeff has 10 years of sleep science experience and research. Before starting Rise Science Jeff spent time publishing academic articles and supporting world-class athletes and teams with better sleep. Jeff Kahn is a true expert in all things sleep. During our interview with Jeff, we chatted about how sleep can improve a founder’s leadership skills and productivity. Give the full episode a listen here. Aishetu Dozie, Founder of Bossy Cosmetics Aishetu Dozie started her career in banking and eventually made the transition to starting a cosmetics company. Just like any founder, her first time journey has been full of highs and lows. Aishetu, like many founders and leaders, has struggled with imposter syndrome. We love her thoughts below on how she has tackled imposter syndrome. Give the full episode a listen here. Kyle Poyar, Partner at OpenView Ventures OpenView Ventures is credited with coining the term “Product-Led Growth.” As Kyle and the team at OpenView continue to help SaaS companies grow and become market leaders he has seen it all. From the early days of defining PLG and the impact of COVID-19 Kyle is full of first-hand stories and the data to back it up. Check out how Kyle defines and thinks about PLG below. Give the full episode a listen here. Yin Wu, Founder of Pulley Yin Wu has been through Y Combinator 3 times and has successfully exited 2 companies. Over the course of her founder journey it is safe to say that she has spent a good amount of time fundraising and chatting with investors. Yin likes to bucket investors into 3 categories to structure who she should be chatting with and raising from. Give the full episode a listen here. Cheryl Campos, Head of Venture Growth at Republic Over the past 3 years, the funding options for startups have continued to transform. Over her 3 years at Republic, Cheryl has watched as the market has changed and crowdfunding has become a more viable option. Check out Cheryl’s thoughts on the new funding options below. Give the full episode a listen here. We have plenty of new episodes recorded and ready to share in 2021.

On episode 9 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Don Brown, Founder and CEO of LifeOmic. Prior to starting LifeOmic, Don started 6 companies with his first being acquired by GM in 1986 and his most recent, Interactive Intelligence, being acquired for $1.4B in 2016. Since the acquisition Don has turned to his passion of medicine and the medical field by founding LifeOmic (and LIFE Apps). LifeOmic is a single platform that “activates precision health and wellness.” About Don Even though Don has started 6 companies he might actually have more knowledge in intermittent fasting and health. Through his studies at John Hopkins and the introduction of the LIFE Fasting Tracking, Don has become a true expert on all things fasting. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Don. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Don What he learned from starting 6 companies What he learned from navigating the dot-com bust, the Great Recession, and COVID-19. The importance of knowing the job to be done Why intermittent fasting isn’t just “another diet craze” Why intermittent stresses are good for your body The benefits of intermittent fasting How you should think about setting up a fasting schedule Related Resources Don’s Twitter Don’s LinkedIn LIFE Apps The LIFE Fasting Tracker The Founders Forward is Produced by Visible Our platforms helps thousands of founders update investors, track key metrics, and raise capital. Try Visible free for 14 days.

On episode 6 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Yin Wu, CEO and Founder of Pulley. Pulley is a cap table platform for hyper-growth startups. Pulley is the third company that Yin has started so it is safe to say she knows the ins and outs of building a startup. About Yin With her first 2 startups successfully exiting Yin has her eye’s set on a new market and issue that all founder face — cap tables and valuations. During her first bouts as a founder Yin had the realization that “no one starts a company because they want to pair this spreadsheet. You start a company cause there’s this vision, this idea that you want to bring it to this world.” In addition to sharing her learnings from building 3 companies, Yin also shares how founders should think about fundraising, cap table management, and distributing equity. Our CEO, Mike Preuss, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Yin. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn from Yin Why Pulley wants to lower the bar to make it easier for founders to start a company Why founders should own 20% of their company by the time they raise a Series A Why they believe founder led companies are more successful in the long run How they are approaching hiring, mostly past founders, at Pulley How they are building their culture at Pulley How they approached their $10M funding round at Pulley What she learned from going through Y Combinator 3 times Related Resources Yin’s Twitter Yin’s LinkedIn Pulley The Founders Forward is Produced by Visible Our platforms helps thousands of founders update investors, track key metrics, and raise capital. Try Visible free for 14 days.

Businesses are formed through a number of different methods and structures. Different business structures are selected for a number of reasons: decision-making structures, financial implications, tax adjustments, flexibility, etc…One common example of a business structure or investor structure is the Limited Partnership or an LP. Let’s explore what exactly a Limited Partnership is, and the Pros and Cons of working within this specific structure. What Is a Limited Partnership? A Limited Partnership is a business partnership of 2 or more partners. Limited Partnerships are made up of partners that contribute a significant financial investment to the business. There are a few specifications that make a Limited Partnership what it is. Within the partnership, there is always 1 General Partner while the remaining member or members of the LP are considered Limited Partners. Beyond the breakdown of how the members of the LP are structured and held responsible, an LP operates in a few specific ways. For starters, they are pass-through entities. This means that the Limited Partnership itself is not subject to corporate income tax. Instead, the LPs profits flow through to the owners or members, or in this case Partners, and then those profits are taxed under individual income tax laws. Most states in the U.S. have specific laws governing the formation of LPs and most states require some form of registration of said LP with that state’s Secretary of State. Typically, LPs are formed as an ideal structure to raise capital for a particular set of investments that ensures limited liability for most members of the LP to protect losing more than they invest and maximizing their opportunity for gains. In tech, LPs are a common structure for many Venture Capital Firms or Private Investment Firms. In summary, remember these key takeaways about LPs: LPs have at least 2 members A Limited Partnership always has a General Partner while additional members are Limited Partners. LPs are pass-through entities. LPs protect most members’ assets with losses only ever being possible for the amount initially invested. Limited Partnerships are a great structure for raising capital for large, potentially risky investment opportunities – like software and technology companies. Related Resource: The Understandable Guide to Startup Funding Stages Related Resource: 6 Types of Investors Startup Founders Need to Know About How Does a Limited Partnership Work? Diving in more specifically to the structure of a Limited Partnership’s members, it’s critical to understand the difference between the General Partner and the Limited Partner(s). The General Partner oversees and runs the business including the day-to-day operations and management of the business, it’s activities, and it’s investments. Additionally, the General Partner takes on unlimited liability for the debt of the business as well as any obligations or activities as outlined in the partnership. The Limited Partner or Limited Partners do not make any decisions in the execution and operation of the business. However, they only have limited liability for the debt of the business, with liability only up to the amount they invested. Limited partners are sometimes known as passive or silent investors since they have no stake in the business and are more like general company shareholders with the type of influence they can have on the operations of the business. How Do You Form a Limited Partnership? The process of forming a Limited Partnership is fairly straightforward. As mentioned above, most states require Limited Partnerships to be registered with the state’s Secretary of State. So for most LPs in most states, the first step to forming an LP is to file as an official LP within the state your LP will be based in – the state your LP is registered in doesn’t mean that is where all your Limited Partners have to be residing, as they will pay individual income tax in their respective states, but it is where your LP will be registered to operate or where your LP will be headquartered. As part of registration with your Secretary of State, most states will require the LP to pay a filing fee. When an LP is officially recognized by the state government, the Limited Partnership will be granted a Certificate of Limited Partnership. This certificate includes the names and addresses of the general partner or partners, the street address of the LLP’s principal office, and a brief, formal statement of the partnership’s business. After the legal registration is complete, the next step to forming a Limited Partnership is to create a Limited Partnership Agreement. The LP Agreement will be a formal, legal document that governs how much ownership each Limited Partner has in the partnership, any partnership limitations or agreements that the General Partner must adhere to, and any other miscellaneous terms of the partnership. The Limited Partnership Agreement will serve as the foundational, fundamental outline of how your newly formed LP will operate. What to Include in a Partnership Agreement The Limited Partnership Agreement is a critical part of the formation of an LP. There are a number of pieces of information that should be included in a standard partnership agreement. Business Name: The formal name of the Limited Partnership should be clearly outlined at the heading of the partnership agreement. Business Purpose: The goal of the Limited Partnership should be outlined within the agreement. This should include the reason for establishing the LP as well as the purpose this LP will serve – what it’s investing in or why it’s formation will be a positive outcome for said business projects or initiates it will impact. Partner Structure: The Partnership Agreement should list out the roles and responsibilities of the General Partner and the Limited Partner(s). The agreement should also include the existing names of the GP and any current LPs – this can be amended at a later date if more LPs join or some exit the Limited Partnership. In addition to just outlining the specific roles of each partner, the partnership agreement should outline how specifically partners can leave the partnership. Ownership shares and capital contributions: This section of the Partnership Agreement should outline the specific capital contributions of the LPs within the Limited Partnership, as well as the equivalent ownership stake and shares that each LP is granted. This section should also cover how specifically any profits or losses will be divided among partners depending on their contributions and partnership status (Limited or General). Voting Rights and Decision Structure: Clearly outline how decisions within the partnership will be made. If there are voting rights for members beyond the General Partner(s) outline that. Additionally, outlining a plan for decision making should the GP have any trouble upholding their role or need to step down for any reason. Dissolution Guidelines: Like any business, not all LPs are going to have a successful outcome or last forever. As your forming your Limited Partnership, clearly outline what will happen should the lP ever dissolve – outline how assets will be divided, how knowledge will be dispersed, and any other structural outlines or decisions will be made. What Is An Example of a Limited Partnership Business? Now that we’re clear on what a Limited Partnership Business is and have the basics for the formation of one, it’s important to understand the types of businesses that may benefit from being established as Limited Partnerships. Commercial Real Estate Projects – Real estate, especially commercial real estate, typically requires a lot of capital up front in order to get a project off the ground and finished. This makes large commercial real estate projects a great candidate for a Limited Partnership Business. An experienced real estate investor or contractor may choose to form an LP for a large commercial project and serve as the general partner if the know space and market and are confident they can get a return. The LP structures secures that project capital up front from the limited partners and allows the general partner operators, maybe a lead investor or contractor or even construction company, to front the risk and manage the project. Estate Planning Businesses – If someone has a large estate that will need to be divided up and passed on, an LP is a good option to ensure this is done fairly and efficiently. An LP for an estate can ensure one primary partner is responsible for managing said estate and any ongoing businesses tied to that estate, while the Limited partners of said estate can benefit financially from a few very specific entities or allowances from said estate but will have no governing control of the assets. This LP is a great way for someone to ensure their estate is properly taken care of after they pass. Family Businesses – A business looking to operate without any external partners or investors, but rather, keep all financial stake within the business to family funds or money is a great candidate for a Limited Partnership. Within a family owned business, a specific family member can be designated as the General partner of the business and ensure all operations of the business run smoothly, while family money from other members serving as limited partners can finance the business. This keeps debt tied to the family vs. taking on any additional, outside debt. Limited Partnership Pros and Cons Like all business structures, there are pros and cons to forming a Limited Partnership. Pros Easy to Create – With essentially a 3-step process (Register with the state, pay a feel, write up an agreement), LPs are one of the easiest business types to create. This makes forming an LP as a way to fund and launch a business a great option. Additionally, LPs don’t come with formal reporting requirements like annual board meetings or shareholder meetings. The General Partner of the LP will handle decisions as clearly outlined in the partnership agreement. Personal Liability Protection – For the majority of stakeholders in an LP, the limited partners, there’s a limit to what they are liable for in the business. As stated, limited partners are only liable for the amount up to their investment so the risk is a lot more black and white and much less risky than other investment opportunities or business structures for the majority of stakeholders in an LP. Pass Through Entity – There is no self-employment taxes for limited partners and there are no corporate taxes for LPs, all partners are taxed with standard income tax so the financial structure of an LP is extremely straightforward and attractive for the participants. Less Formal – Outside of outlining the guidelines between the General Partner(s) role and the Limited Partner(s) role, there aren’t a lot of required formal structure or guidelines for running an LP. This allows LPs to be one of the most informal options for running your business which for many types of businesses is a great benefit, especially if the business is straightforward and extra structure or obligations would be unnecessary or frivolous. Cons Unlimited Personal Liability for the General Partner – While the Limited Partners benefit greatly from an LP structure, an General Partner in an LP is taking on unlimited personal liability with the business. This can be a huge risk and be extremely detrimental to a personal finance situation if said business does go under or doesn’t pan out as intended with its specific investments. For a lead investor to take on a GP role, the risks of unlimited personal liability are certainly something to consider. Limited Partner Participation – If having a stake in decisions about yoru investments is important to you, then investing as a limited partner in an LP could be a major con. Limited partners don’t have any say or influence on what happens within the LP which can be a con if you end up not liking the outcome of certain GP decisions or existing investments or outcomes within your LP. Ownership Changes – LPs come with a number of challenges with ownership and leadership. On the leadership side, it’s not a flexible structure for bringing in new management. Based on the way LPs and GPs are determined, from financial and liability stake, it’s not a straightforward process to bring in new operators – it requires a certain amount of financial contribution and changes ot the limited partnership agreement. On the ownership side, this also makes it hard to transfer to other investment entities like LLCs due to the way the capital and liabilities are divided out. An LP may not be the right structure if selling the business is part of the end game plan. After diving into the details of Limited Partnerships, how they are structured, and the pros and cons of selecting a Limited Partnership to establish your business, you may still have a few questions on the mind. Limited Partnership: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) How Are Limited Partnerships Taxed? LPs will not pay income tax. They are pass-through organizations so the individual partners of the LP will pay income taxes on their investments, earnings, and losses. How Do Limited Partners Earn Returns? Limited Partners will earn returns via dividends when their investments via the LP produce returns. Limited Partners will receive dividends in proportion to how much they invested in the Limited Partnership business. What Securities Laws Are Limited Partnerships Subject To? In general, LPs are subject to all state and federal security laws and must be registered unless a clear exemption is stated and available in their state or at the federal level for their specific business. What Is the Difference Between a Limited Partnership and a Sole Proprietorship? A sole proprietor is someone who owns an unincorporated business by themselves. A Limited Partnership requires at least 2 partners – a general partner and a limited partner – but may have more than 2 partners as well. What Is the Difference Between a Limited Partnerships and an LLC? An LLC, or a Limited Liability Company, is a company where there is limited liability to all owners. This differs from an LP because there is not one sole partner that has unlimited liability, so all members of an LLC have more protection for their investments. Both types of businesses are pass-through businesses from a taxation perspective. Find and Secure Funding for Your Limited Partnership With Visible Collect KPIs and metrics from portfolio companies, add investment data, and built beautiful reports and Updates to share with your limited partners all from one platform — learn how venture capital firms are leveraging Visible to level up their LP communication and fundraising efforts here. Related Resource: Investor Outreach Strategy: 9 Step Guide

On episode 4 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Aishetu Dozie, CEO and Founder of Bossy. Bossy is a cosmetics brand with an intense focus on community and empowering women. Aishetu has years of experience in banking (at just about every major firm) and was looking for a new direction. She enrolled in a Stanford program and the rest is history. About Aishetu As Aishetu continues her founder journey she is learning and growing along the way. From her struggles to raising venture capital to supply chain issues amid COVID Aishetu has tackled every problem thrown at her. The conversation does not stop at bootstrapping Bossy — Aishetu shares all sorts of amazing stories on own personal life and journey as a founder. Plus, she was recently featured on How I Built This so we were particularly thrilled to hear about her experience. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Aishetu. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Aishetu How she transitioned from banking to beauty How Aishetu has faced the struggles of 2020 How Bossy has built a community How Aishetu has bootstrapped Bossy How being a guest on How I Built This impacted her business Related Resources Bossy Beauty Aishetu’s Twitter Aishetu’s How I Built This Episode Bootstrapping 101: Pros & Cons of Bootstrapping Your Startup We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Aishetu. For founders looking to learn from a newly minted founder that is figuring it out, Aishetu has you covered. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success.

What is organizational alignment? Generally speaking, a startup is a fast moving organization. The goal is to grow quickly and attack a market. If a startup has raised venture capital, this is particularly true. A startup is likely hiring and deploying capital at a quick clip. Staying aligned as a team as new faces continue to pop up in the office is a key to success. Mix in the state of remote work and organizational alignment is vital. Organizational alignment is a strategy where company employees and stakeholders are aligned to grow, achieve goals, and execute on company mission, vision, and values more effectively and quickly. Related Reading: How To Manage Remote Teams: 16 Tips From a Remote Startup Importance of organizational alignment As we alluded to earlier in the post, startups are fast moving organizations generally with a focused goal or vision. Being able to effectively communicate, make decisions, and grow is vital. Below are a few of the important aspects of organizational alignment. Business strategy When starting a business there is likely a set business strategy that executives and founding members believe will be the key to success. Organizational alignment will allow everyone involved, plus new hires, to stick to the strategy to efficiently grow. Decision-making Making quick decisions is important in the growth stage of a business. In order to best and most efficiently make it is important that everyone is aware of what is happening with the business. By having all stakeholders engaged the decision will come quicker with more conviction. Business performance At the end of the day a more aligned organization will lead to better business outcomes as a whole. Company/corporate culture One of the biggest benefits of organizational alignment is the ability to lift and solidify a company culture. Gone are the days of employees being attracted by ping pong tables, free lunch, and company happy hours. Top talent is attracted to an organization because of the work and the company culture. They are in search of transparency, ownership, and responsibility in the workplace. Organizational alignment is a great way to help employees feel as they are solving problems and helping the business grow. Employee Engagement Piggybacking off of the idea that organizational alignment will help promote a strong company culture it will also help employees engage. When employees are aware of what is going on and their feedback is welcome, they will be more engaged and more invested in the success of the company and their personal growth. How to build organizational alignment There are countless methods and approaches to create company alignment (more specific frameworks below) but we have found there are 3 areas to focus on that will help companies build organizational alignment. Individual Goals and Purpose Before you can start building alignment across the entire organization, individuals need to have a deep understanding of their own purpose and goals. If an employee is not feeling the ownership and importance of their role aligning them with the rest of the organization won’t give them the benefits organizational alignment can offer. One aspect of this is understanding the role and position they are filling but also on the leadership team to understand their desires to make sure they are filling the right position. As Jeff Boss put it in an article for Forbes, “Ask your people what motivates them, why they’re doing what they’re doing, where they see themselves in three years and what might happen if they don’t get there. Set the conditions for candor now to prevent the loss of talent later.” Team Goals and Purpose Once an employee has a clear understanding and their role you can begin to align the individuals in a team or business unit. Because everyone knows their position everyone should be able to come together and align themselves as a team. No one should be questioning who owns what or how they can contribute. Different teams likely have their own set of metrics and KPIs that they are responsible for. Every individual in a team should know how they can contribute to the growth or achievement of their team’s KPIs. Cross Team Alignment Now that individual teams are aligned and aware of their goals they can start aligning across an organization. Business units and teams can’t be siloed and expected to impact the business as best as possible. In order to best perform all teams need to be informed and aligned. Jeff Boss uses an example of sales and marketing teams: “It doesn’t matter how great your sales teams perform if your marketing teams fail to get the message out, and vice versa… What impedes alignment between teams, they say, are disparate systems, lack of transparency and visibility on goals, and skewed expectations—all of which fall under the umbrella of poor communication.” Organizational alignment starts with an individual knowing their role and position in the organization. From there a startup can set up a system and framework to best align their individuals and teams. Organizational alignment model/framework examples Below are a few of our favorite frameworks that have stood the test of time to help organizations stay aligned: McKinsey 7-s model Originally introduced in the 1970s the McKinsey 7-s model has certainly stood the test of time. As defined by the team at Corporate Finance Institute, “The McKinsey 7S Model refers to a tool that analyzes a company’s “organizational design.” The goal of the model is to depict how effectiveness can be achieved in an organization through the interactions of seven key elements – Structure, Strategy, Skill, System, Shared Values, Style, and Staff.” The 7s are split into 2 groups — hard and soft: As defined by the team at Strategic Management Insight, “Strategy, structure and systems are hard elements that are much easier to identify and manage when compared to soft elements. On the other hand, soft areas, although harder to manage, are the foundation of the organization and are more likely to create the sustained competitive advantage.” We put quick definitions of each “s” below but you can learn more here. Strategy — The business plan and strategy behind the organization’s product, go-to-market, and growth. Structured — How the organization is structured and organized. Systems — The chain of command, communication, and decision making framework across the organization. Style — How individuals interact and work with each other. Can resemble company culture. Staff — The human resource and talent related to hiring, alignment, and recruiting. Skills — The specific skills of individuals and teams that allow a company to execute on a strategy. Shared Values — The mission, vision, and values of an organization. Image from the team at Mind Tools. The team at Mindtools explains how to execute on the 7-s model in 4 steps: Start with your shared values: are they consistent with your structure, strategy, and systems? If not, what needs to change? Then look at the hard elements. How well does each one support the others? Identify where changes need to be made. Next, look at the soft elements. Do they support the desired hard elements? Do they support one another? If not, what needs to change? As you adjust and align the elements, you’ll need to use an iterative (and often time-consuming) process of making adjustments, and then re-analyzing how that impacts other elements and their alignment. The end result of better performance will be worth it. V2MOM – Salesforce model One of our favorite alignment strategies at Visible is the V2MOM Model from Salesforce. As Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, described it himself, “The vision helped us define what we wanted to do. The values established what was most important about that vision; it set the principles and beliefs that guided it (in priority). The methods illustrated how we would get the job done by outlining the actions and the steps that everyone needed to take. The obstacles identified the challenges, problems, and issues we would have to overcome to achieve our vision. Finally, the measures specified the actual result we aimed to achieve; often this was defined as a numerical outcome.” The components of the V2MOM can be found below: An example from Benioff and the team at Salesforce can be found below: Learn more about V2MOM and how you can use it at your organization in our blog post here. How to measure organizational alignment Organizational alignment can be quite subjective. Because of this there are a lack of quantitative metrics that you can use to measure organizational alignment. Yes, you can look at revenue, headcount, employee retention to make sure things are going in the right direction but there is a chance that employees still feel lost and are not aligned with other team members. However, this is not a bad thing. You can use a qualitative approach to measure your alignment. Managers can send surveys, poll employees, or just ask questions during a 1 on 1 to understand how well their organization is aligned. Organizational alignment tools Obviously organizational alignment is vital to a company’s success there are countless tools and tricks to help companies stay aligned. OKRs As defined by the team at What Matters, “The definition of “OKRs” is “Objectives and Key Results.” It is a collaborative goal-setting tool used by teams and individuals to set challenging, ambitious organizational goals with measurable results. OKRs are how you track progress, create alignment, and encourage engagement around measurable and clear goals.” An objective is the overarching goal that needs to be achieved. The key results are what need to be measured and accomplished along the way to complete the objective. OKRs are a great way to keep everyone on the team focused on the same goal (objective). Employee engagement There are also countless tools to help organizations measure employee engagement. One of our favorites is TinyPulse. TinyPulse allows teams to send out quick employee surveys to generate an employee engagement report. This can be used by managers to pinpoint what employees may be struggling to feel aligned with the organization as a whole. Team Updates At Visible, we recommend using team updates to create an aligned organization. We see quite a few customers send out a weekly team update to help keep their team headed in the same direction. A quick example might look like this: A weekly update sent on Mondays recapping key metrics, wins and losses from the previous week, employee shout outs, and any interesting finds from the previous week. Give your team the transparency and communication they deserve with a quick update. Send your first team update now. Related resource: Why the Chief of Staff is Important for a Startup

Everyone, especially startup leaders and founders, are constantly looking for “hacks” to be more productive. A quick Google Search suggests “to-do lists, management tools, OKRs, etc.” But what if we told you one of the easiest ways to increase productivity is right in front of you? We recently had the opportunity to interview Jeff Kahn, CEO and Founder of Rise Science, on the Founders Forward Podcast. Rise is the only app that unlocks the real-world benefits of better sleep. Being a sleep expert and a startup founder himself, there is no doubt that Jeff spends time pondering how to be more productive. While Jeff offered countless tidbits of knowledge to better your sleep and health, 2 things stuck with us when it came to productivity. Scheduling Around Your Circadian Rhythm As defined by SleepFoundation.org, “Circadian rhythms are 24-hour cycles that are part of the body’s internal clock, running in the background to carry out essential functions and processes.” As Jeff explains it, “You actually have a part in the brain that’s controlling all the cells in your body and organ systems, basically when to be active and alert and when not to be. And as a result of that sort of on and off activity and recovery state we actually have these different times when we should be performing at different times when we’re just not as performance.” So what does this have to do with productivity? There are natural times when you are more productive and alert than other times. This means that you could be most productive at 9am and have a “dip” in the afternoon when you are less productive. Jeff encourages leaders (and everyone) to schedule their days around this biological phenomenon. “What this means is you need to be tuned into when you’re going to be at your peak performance and when you’re not, and then be able to plan your day accordingly.” As Jeff and Mike Preuss, our CEO, explain, they use their circadian rhythms and “dips and peaks” to schedule their day. For example, Mike has a peak (AKA is most productive) in the morning so tries to block this time in his day to do more strategic thinking and planning. Whereas when he is in a “dip” he may schedule demos and do other tasks he does not need to be 100% as his best performance for. This isn’t the first time someone has brought this up on the Founders Forward Podcast. Amanda Goetz, Founder of House of Wise, actually tracks her sleeping patterns and circadian rhythms to schedule her day as well. How do I track Circadian Rhythm? There are different applications and rituals that people will suggest to track circadian rhythms but we actually use Rise ourselves at Visible. They have what they call an “energy schedule” that is based on your sleep schedule so you can see your natural peaks and dips throughout the day. For example, here is my energy schedule from the app: There is actually a second “peak” not shown in the screenshot (which I was in as I wrote this) when I tend to get my best writing done. So what is Jeff’s other tip to productivity? Categorizing the Day Throughout the course of a week, a founder is pulled in every direction. Maybe it is fundraising, or customer calls, or HR, or finances, etc. In order to stay fully prioritized Jeff “categorizes” his day. This means that Jeff buckets his different activities/calendar events throughout the day into different categories. “I basically organize my day into sort of categories. Let’s say I’m working on a fundraise or I’m working on something on B2B or product or consumer or HR or whatever it happens to be, I sort of have these different categories. And every time I start a new task I track that and track the category. And what I found, there’s sort of two useful learnings.“ The first useful learning is that tracking his task allows Jeff to look back on a week and understand if he focused his time in the right place. Going into a week Jeff will have one (or a few) overarching things he would like to focus on. If he looks back at the week and sees that his time spent on the focus area was low, he knows he needs to change something in his scheduling. The second learning is that categorizing his task allows him to fully understand how time he spent on “focused work.” Over time Jeff has determined his optimal amount of time he should be working over the course of a week. How do I categorize my day? Jeff uses a tool called Toggl. It allows you to prioritize and categorize your day. Jeff has set up a Zapier Zap between Toggl where he sends his status to Slack so his team can see what he is working on. If you’re interested in learning more about sleep, productivity, and founder life check out the rest of the podcast with Jeff.

On episode 3 of the Founders Forward Podcast we welcome Jeff Kahn, the CEO and Founder of Rise Science. Rise is the only app that unlocks the real-world benefits of better sleep. Jeff has 10 years of sleep science experience and research. Before starting Rise Science Jeff spent time publishing academic articles and supporting world class athletes and teams with better sleep. There is no doubt about it that Jeff knows about sleep. About Jeff Being a founder is difficult. Mix in 2020 as a whole and the stress and anxiety of being a founder can be overbearing. Jeff shared his story of going from sleep science student to founding a sleep app. He discusses how sleep can be an easy way to improve your overall well being (and leaves us with plenty of sleep takeaways). The conversation does not stop there — Jeff also has plenty of tidbits about his life of a founder and how he leads and stays productive. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Jeff. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Jeff The 100 year history of sleep science (in 5 minutes) Simple takeaways to improve your sleep How sleep impacts your leadership skills How you can leverage circadian rhythms to do better work How managing sleep (and sleep debt) can improve your overall well being How Jeff categories his day to be most efficient How iteration and measurement improved a key activation metric 10x for Rise Related Resources Rise Science — Check out and download the application. Toggl — Application that Jeff uses to categorize and prioritize his day. Traction — Book from the founder of DuckDuckGo mentioned by Jeff. How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit — Rahul Vohra, Founder of Superhuman, explains how they found product market fit. We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Jeff. For founders looking to improve their overall health and leadership skills, Jeff has you covered. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success. To stay up-to-date with the Founders Forward Podcast subscribe to the Visible Weekly Newsletter below:

On episode 2 of the Founders Forward Podcast we are joined by Amanda Goetz, CMO of Teal and Founder at House of Wise. Before taking the leap into her second time as a founder, Amanda was the VP of Marketing at The Knot. With her experience in branding and recent jump to starting House of Wise we couldn’t think of a better guest to chat about all things branding and founder life. About Amanda House of Wise is empowering women to take control of their sleep, sex, stress, and wealth with luxury CBD products made with real women in mind. Give Amanda a follow on Twitter to stay up to date on the House of Wise. If you’re interested in learning more about CBD and wellness, be sure to give the episode below a listen. Amanda shared her story from founder to operator back to founder, how startups can leverage part time executives, how to build a brand, and how she deals with the stress of being a founder and part-time executive, and much more. Mike Preuss, CEO of Visible, had the opportunity to sit down and chat with Amanda. You can give the full episode a listen below (or in any of your favorite podcast apps). What You Can Expect to Learn From Amanda How she went from founder to operator to part time founder/executive. How startup founders can leverage a part time executive How she structures her day and stays productive The importance of knowing your body and rhythms to be a better leader and executive How she has stayed sane with the pressures of being a founder How she raised capital for House of Wise Related Resources Amanda’s Twitter House of Wise TealHQ We created the Founders Forward Podcast to learn from people like Amanda. For founders that are taking the dive or seasoned founders alike, Amanda has plenty of powerful takeaways. As you scale your business, having the right guides at your side can make all of the difference. Each episode we’ll talk to fellow founders, investors and experts. We’ll dive into their zone of genius as well as hear about their past mistakes to give you a better chance of success. To stay up-to-date with the Founders Forward Podcast subscribe to the Visible Weekly Newsletter below:

Finding deal flow is a daily challenge for investors. Every investor has their own "secret sauce" for sourcing new deals. However, there are underlying technologies that investors can leverage to better their deal flow. In this webinar, we cover: Using tech to uncover and find new deals Best Practices for Managing Potential Investments & Relationships Best Practices for managing current portfolio companies Other tech in the VC toolkit 5 minute demos of Visible and 4Degrees

Getting regular, high quality, and actionable data from portfolio companies is important. It allows you to make better decisions, support your portfolio, share insights with portfolio company founders, report to LPs and more. This practice should also be highly valuable for founders. They should be able to share wins, challenges and get help from you, their stakeholder. It should only take them 3 minutes to complete (if not, either something may be wrong with the request or structurally wrong with the company). Below are some best practices to make sure you get: Timely information (e.g. 100% completion) Structured data(comparing apples to apples) Actionable insights (how can we help companies) Timing & Cadence Same time every period Set the expectation that you will be sending a request the same time every month. e.g. your request will be due the 20th post month or quarter end. Don’t randomly switch between the 10th, the 30th, etc. Founders will not have an expectation and know they can submit whenever they want. Luckily Visible makes this easy for you. You’ll be to set you schedule and we take care of all emails, due dates and reminders. Appropriate Cadence We recommend the following cadences. This is 100% customizable as every fund is different. Weekly – Accelerators in Cohort Monthly – Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A Quarterly – Series B & later Request Content Less is more. Don’t send a request asking for every metric under the sun. Only get the information you truly need. If you are truly providing value back to the founders, then start small, get a rhythm and expand the data. Metrics 5-15 Metrics. Depending how closely you work with companies, ask for 5-15 metrics and no more. Use a metric description! If you are asking for Burn and don’t provide context, you might get 15 different variations. Should it be negative? Should it be trailing 3 months or current month? Should it include financing? Be descriptive about what you want. **Here is our Metric Library** that has some helpful descriptions. Qualitative Info How can you help? Always make sure to use a qualitative section to see how you can best help the portfolio. Also let the founder share their wins and challenges if it makes sense! Rollout Let your current (and new) portfolio companies know to expect a regular request from you and what to expect. Intro Template Feel free to use our Intro Copy Template if you need some inspiration. Custom Domain All of your requests will come from you. However, with Visible you can fully white label the request emails so they come from your email and domain.

Naval Ravikant, the founder of AngelList, recently began a new project called Spearhead. The program gives founders $1M to start angel investing, and seeks to educate those who wish to enter the space. The Spearhead podcast, meant to scale these efforts, is a treasure trove of insights not just for those who wish to be angels, but for entrepreneurs looking to raise a Seed round. You can find the full podcast & transcribed episodes at spearhead.co. Here are 7 insights for founders from the podcast: Angels build brands. Be aware of who you’re associating yourself with. Investors in early stage companies need not just deal flow, but access to the best deals. To get access, angels build brands. They do this in many different ways – Jason Lemkin built the SaaStr conference, Naval built AngelList, and Fred Wilson blogs. You should be mindful that the brands you associate yourself with in the early days can have an impact on the future of your company. Angels with great brands can get you access to key hires, new customers, & helpful mentorship. Future investors may also use the brand of your angels as a signal as to whether or not they should invest. If your early stage investors have have a track record of success, securing later funding gets easier. Avoid angels who put too much on the line. It can lead to bad behavior. If an angel invests so much into your company that they stand to lose a large portion of their net worth if you fail, this could lead to tense situations. This applies to family member & friend investments as well. Angel investing is a high risk sport, you should only play with people who understand this. Don’t use FOMO as a fundraising tactic. The best angels refuse to be pressured into a deal. Telling a high level angel investor that they ‘only have 24 hours to get into the round!’ can backfire. There is a fine line with this, as social proof and scarcity are tools that you need to leverage when fundraising. However, being overly aggressive or pushy makes people hesitant about working with you – especially investors with experience and strong brands. Social proof is key. Angels are often wary about getting involved in deals where they have no network connections to the founders or fellow investors. Naval & Nivi explain this by saying that good angels should be cautious about deals that are made up of complete strangers. If a founder is raising money and none of their direct connections or past investors are involved, that may be a bad sign. Similarly, if an angel with excellent judgement writes a huge check to a company, it sends a message to other investors that they’re a strong bet. Cold emailing is part of the fundraising process, but you’ll have far more success with people you already know. Your network is critical. Build it before you have to. Get your psychology right. Great founders often toe the line between visionary & madness. To build a massive company, you need to attempt something that most people don’t think will work. It takes a special mindset to do this. Naval explains that great angels don’t expect founders to be ‘coachable’ or have perfect records, as they sometimes have to operate as an outsider at first to be successful. Instead, founders should be aggressive and seek to build traction. However, you should avoid the perils of over-aggressiveness. If you prioritize hyper growth at the expense of traction, you can end up ‘blitzfailing’ as David Sacks explains on a guest episode of Spearhead. You need to keep your genius in check, and ensure that you’re prioritizing the right things in your business. Build a technical network. Angels are looking for huge returns in exchange for taking a chance on you. This is an all or nothing game, and you’ll need to be very right when others are wrong. It’s often the only way to generate massive returns. This is why you should solve technical challenges where you have what Naval calls ‘specific knowledge.’ Many of the most valuable startup opportunities are in technology. Build relationships with scientists & technologists at the source of new developments. These people can give you access to angels who seek to invest in tech companies, in addition to talent and insight that comes from the source of innovation. Get your team right. Angel investors are betting on founding teams more than their initial ideas. Pivots are common in startups, and savvy early stage investors understand this. When a company pivots, the common denominator ends up being the team the angels invested in. Naval explains that you should seek to create a company of world class builders, salespeople, & community creators. These are vague categories that take on different meanings in different industries. A builder could be a software engineer or a logistics expert, while a seller could be a fundraiser or a marketer. The key is to have both. An amazing product with no distribution won’t win, and Naval calls the outsourcing of product development a “red flag.” Team up with skilled people who have the 3 traits Naval & Nivi look for in partners – intelligence, energy, and integrity. If you do this, you’ll attract investment, and be more likely to whether the inevitable storms that come with starting a company. When marketing any product, you start by understanding your customer. Why wouldn’t you do the same when selling investment opportunities in your company? We think that Spearhead is a great entry point into understanding the psychology of an angel investor, and hope that you can use these insights when raising funding for your early stage startup. Want more advice delivered to your inbox every Thursday? Subscribe to our Founders Forward Newsletter. We search the web for the best tips to attract, engage and close investors, then deliver them to thousands of inboxes every week.