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Do you find it hard not to micromanage every little aspect of your business?

Are you guilty of wishing that you could just clone yourself?

You’re not alone, but you can become far more effective when you outsource everything you don’t absolutely HAVE to be involved with. Plus, there are some tasks that — sorry — someone else could be doing much better — as challenging as that can be to admit to yourself.

Here are three essential keys to make sure that delegating part of your work is as painless (and even as enjoyable) as possible.

Choose Tasks to Delegate

These are the things that you don’t really want to do, but are scared to let go of. Some examples might include work-related minutia, like posting to social media, filter...

The past few years have seen an explosion of podcasts — it seems like everyone wants to get in on the audio. And startup founders (many of whom have probably been listening to podcasts since they started in the early aughts) are no exception! But how do you know what to listen to in this vast sea of startup podcasts?

Don’t worry — we have you covered. Here are the top 20 best startup podcasts as we head into 2020. Grab your noise cancelling earphones — and get listening.

1. Startup Therapy

Hosted by Startups.com founders and serial entrepreneurs Wil Schroter and Ryan Rutan, Startup Therapy is an inside perspective on issues startup founders really care about. From what to expect in your first year after launching to how to deal with the e...

Every year, we’ll hear people declare that SEO is dead. Well known entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk has declared that its been dying for quite some time. It might be changing, but it’s not dying. Not even close.

Wouldn’t we all love to go back to the late 1990s and early 2000s – a time when simply stuffing keywords into a website’s meta tags, footers and CSS files was enough to guarantee high rankings in the search engines? Not to mention getting paid big money for these simple hacks.

As search engine algorithms have become more sophisticated, most of these tricks have died out. You’ve probably already heard the tagline “SEO is dead”, but for some reason the mindset still persists that figuring out the latest on-page tweaks is the key to natura...

1. You will never take a “real” vacation again.

I am 7 years in and I have come to accept that it is not possible for me to take a “movie vacation” — ya know on a beachfront bungalow with no internet connection, remote from the working world…. And let’s be real — to an entrepreneur that simply doesn’t actually sound fun or relaxing at all. My ideal lifestyle is to be semi-connected on vacation. I’m a phone call/text message away and I will choose when to respond to emails. That may be the extent of my ability to fully “vacation”…and I’m honestly ok with that. Just as I sleep better when my kids are under my roof, I also sleep better when I’m accessible to my business.

2. You will decrease your friendship pool.

Where do most people find the...

I started angel investing almost by accident, which sounds strange to say. Who “accidentally” invests tens of thousands of dollars into highly speculative ventures? Well, I did.

A friend introduced me to Clayton Christopher who was raising money for his new liquor company Deep Eddy. Their first product, a sweet tea vodka, was amazing and he was an experienced entrepreneur, so I went in.

Investing was an exciting, interesting process. Then the company took off, and I got to tell everyone I know that I invested in that new vodka that everyone in Austin was drinking. Winning is the ultimate intoxicant, and from there, I was hooked.

I started investing in companies left and right. I became a huge cheerleader for angel investing. I w...

Making a difference and making a profit don’t have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, in today’s environment, it’s now status quo to aim for both. Contrary to the viewpoint of our parents’ generation (make money first, then give back), today’s wave of entrepreneurs embed causes into their business models as part of the company DNA — not as an afterthought.

In 2008, I witnessed firsthand many of my peers launching innovative, socially conscious companies in genres such as fashion, retail, and e-commerce; each had a vision to make a difference in the world while creating a profitable business.

Unfortunately, I saw many of these business models fail due to an improper understanding of market forces, unit economics, or undifferentiated value pr...

We all have heard that "just getting 51% of the company will help us control the board and rule the world!"

But in startup companies, that's often not the case.

A lot of our control actually lies within the agreements that we create within the company, regardless of our percentage of control.

The Difference between Common and Preferred Shares

Startups can have many classes of stock, but the two most often created are "Common" and "Preferred" shares. There are many variants, but the most classic usage is "Preferred" have controlling rights, "Common" does not.

Investors will almost always take Preferred shares, which entitle them to specific types of rights within the company, even if they do not have the majority of those shares.

Those c...

It’s that time of year again! Get ready for all of the year-end lists, advice, and wrap-ups. Every year, we soak that stuff up, but this year, I’m focusing on something different: my team.

Over the years, I’ve noticed a few things as the holidays roll around.

Naturally, people want to take time off with their friends and family. They should. And they should also prepare accordingly by managing client expectations so they can enjoy their time away.

This is also prime time for folks to reevaluate their lives and career goals. As a boss, that means lots of hand-holding and long conversations with employees around career trajectory and promotion possibilities.

At my company, we’re slammed in the fourth quarter. It’...

We recently hired someone in our finance department that lasted about a week. He happened to be in his 50’s. During his exit interview he said “I wasn’t prepared to work for a company ran by Millennials”.

Until that moment I have never actually considered myself a “Millennial”. I talked about them as “they”, but never thought I was part of the “them” group. I Googled it — turns out “Millennials” apply to anyone born between 1982 and 2004. I was born in 1984….. I guess I AM a Millennial.

Okay, I’ll own it. If that is the case, what makes working for Millennials “different”?

1. I’ll call you out.

The Baby Boomer generation grew up on Dale Carnegie leadership principles. Don’t get me wrong — I’ve read “How to win friends and influence p...

Do you want to become a millionaire? Asking doesn’t make much sense—Who wouldn’t want to be? But WHY? WHAT motivates you? And HOW to fulfill that motivation and become a millionaire? Let us get answers to these questions in the next 2 mins.

It is money which drives your expectations, needs and wants. The thing which helps and assists you in fulfilling them. It is a solution to most of your problems. Money can buy you almost anything, be it freedom, power, comfort, pleasure and the list goes on. Recently the most popular cliche that “Money can’t buy you Happiness” was proven wrong by a study conducted by Cambridge University. According to the study people who spent money in line with their personality traits were the happiest. Y...