There is only one perfect time to start a company, and that’s right now.

Yep, right this minute. In fact, by the time you’re done reading this, you’ll have already waited too long.

“But wait, Wil, I need to just get a few more things in order first. Then I’ll be in a much better position to launch this startup!”

Nope. Wrong. You already missed out. You already waited too long.

The key to right now being the perfect time to start is understanding why any other time is a total waste of time.

Waiting = Stalling

We all want to believe that if we just wait a bit longer, to plan a bit more, to save a bit more, to get a bit more experience, then our chances of being successful with our startup will be much better.

But we’re not waiting — we’re sta...

Types of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is the practice of raising small amounts of money from many backers online. It comes in four main types: donation-based, reward-based, equity, and debt (also called lending or peer-to-peer crowdfunding), each with different platforms, audiences, regulatory rules, and obligations to the people contributing money. The right type for a startup depends entirely on what the company can offer in exchange.

Donation-based crowdfunding (GoFundMe, Fundly, Mightycause): backers contribute money to a person, cause, or project and receive nothing tangible in return. Best for nonprofits, social-impact ventures, and personal causes; rarely the right fit for for-profit startups. Reward-based crowdfunding (Kickstarter, Ind...

One-on-One Meetings (1:1s)

One-on-one meetings (typically called "1:1s") are recurring private meetings between a manager and a direct report, usually held weekly for 30-45 minutes. They are designed for individual coaching, blocker removal, career development, relationship-building, and bidirectional feedback rather than status updates or task tracking (which should happen in async tools or team meetings). They're the most-cited single management practice that distinguishes effective managers from ineffective ones.

The structure that works:

Cadence: weekly is standard. Bi-weekly for some senior reports. Monthly is too infrequent for most direct reports.

Length: 30 minutes minimum, 45 ideal, 60 for new hires or complex relationships.

Time o...

Sole Proprietorship

A sole proprietorship is the simplest US business structure, where a single owner operates a business without forming a separate legal entity. The status is automatic by default whenever one person does business in their own name without incorporating. All business profits and losses are reported on the owner's personal tax return (Schedule C), and the owner has full personal liability for all business debts and obligations. It is the default starting point for freelancers, consultants, and side-business operators, and the wrong structure for any business with meaningful liability exposure or growth ambition.

The advantages: no formation required (you're a sole proprietor automatically when you start doing business; no f...

Private Investors

Private investors are non-public sources of capital that invest in private companies. They include angel investors, venture capital firms, family offices, corporate venture arms, and high-net-worth individuals, most of whom must qualify as "accredited investors" under SEC rules to participate in startup financings. They are distinct from public market investors (who buy publicly traded stocks) and from institutional debt providers (banks, lenders).

The four main categories of private investors at the startup stage are angel investors (individuals investing personal capital, typically $10,000 to $250,000 per deal), venture capital firms (institutional funds investing pooled limited-partner capital, typically $250,000 to $25...

Business Model Canvas

The Business Model Canvas is a one-page framework by Alex Osterwalder that maps nine building blocks of a business model on a single visual canvas. The blocks are customer segments, value propositions, channels, customer relationships, revenue streams, key resources, key activities, key partnerships, and cost structure. Popularized in Osterwalder's 2010 book "Business Model Generation," it facilitates strategic discussion, business model iteration, and team alignment around how the business actually creates and captures value. It is particularly useful for established companies exploring new business models, founders pre-launch thinking through their model, and strategic planning sessions, and it's one of the most wide...

Founder-Market Fit

Founder-market fit is the alignment between a founder's background, networks, expertise, and authentic interest with the market they're building in. Investors evaluate it as a predictor of long-term execution because building a company takes 7-10+ years, and founders with deep market fit are more likely to maintain the conviction and develop the insights required to win. It's the companion concept to product-market fit and the one investors evaluate during diligence almost as carefully, sometimes more carefully than the product itself at early stages.

What founder-market fit consists of:

Domain expertise: years of experience in the market or adjacent markets. Either professional (worked at companies in the space) or perso...

Indiegogo

Indiegogo is a reward and flexible-funding crowdfunding platform launched in January 2008, predating Kickstarter by over a year. It is distinct from Kickstarter by offering both fixed-goal campaigns (all-or-nothing, similar to Kickstarter) and flexible-funding campaigns (where creators keep what they raise even if the goal isn't met), with significantly stronger international reach and a broader category mix that includes social causes and non-product projects Kickstarter rejects. Indiegogo has facilitated billions of dollars in funding across millions of campaigns since launch, though it lags Kickstarter in total funded volume and brand recognition for major product launches.

The structural distinctions from Kickstarter:

• Flexibl...

Startup

A startup is a young company built to find and scale a repeatable, high-growth business model under conditions of high uncertainty. It is distinguished from a traditional small business by its pursuit of rapid growth rather than steady-state operation, defined by what it is searching for (a working, scalable model) rather than by its age, size, or industry.

The two most-cited definitions come from the founders of the modern startup playbook. Steve Blank: "A startup is a temporary organization designed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model." Paul Graham of Y Combinator: "A startup is a company designed to grow fast." Both definitions point to the same idea, that the defining feature of a startup is the search for and...

Friends and Family Round

A friends and family round is the earliest informal funding stage where founders raise from their personal network at pre-seed amounts. Sometimes called an "F&F round" or "love money round," it covers parents, siblings, college friends, former colleagues, mentors, and extended family, typically $10,000 to $250,000 total across 3 to 15 individuals. The capital funds initial company formation, MVP development, and first few months of operations before the company is ready to approach professional investors. It is one of the most-common funding sources for first-time founders and one of the most-emotionally-loaded because the relationships at stake aren't transactional.

The typical structure: check sizes of $5K-$5...