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Much talk has been thrown around regarding the importance of diversity; however, as Dave McClure of 500 Startups noted, “There’s a soft bias toward doing things that are familiar.” In general, that means statistically more “white male nerds” get hired and receive funding “–I think we are making progress,” Dave said, “Now it’s brown and yellow nerds that get funding.”

As a small startup, your first hire can make or break your team, and as teams grow, there is a natural tendency to bring on people who remind you of yourself. What are actual ways to make sure you are hiring a diverse team in backgrounds as well as skillsets?

SheWorx recently attended the Uber x Vettery Women in Tech event with:

• Alexandra Wilkis Wilson (Co-Founder...

When you meet someone, you know whether there’s a connection. Shared experiences, interests, and values can quickly bond total strangers.

Brands aren’t people, of course, but branding is about humanizing a brand in a way that helps consumers connect with it.

Today, brand authenticity and trust top shoppers’ priority lists. Sixty-four percent say shared values influence their authentic brand relationships, and 63 percent prefer to buy from brands they perceive as honest.

Just look at Warby Parker. “We believe everyone has the right to see,” its slogan proclaims. By selling designer frames with a socially conscious and a frictionless customer experience, the scrappy eye wear brand found friends in an overpriced, impers...

“Mom, I want to become an entrepreneur just like you.” How would these words make you feel? Or maybe you’ve already heard them. If so, how did you react? At first, you probably felt proud. Not only does your child look up to you, but he or she is also eager to learn about business at a young age. While typical kids are playing video games, yours is planning for the future — and that’s impressive.

But then, the nerves probably kicked in. What if, after pouring tons of time, effort, and emotion into building a company, things just don’t work out? The disappointment could be devastating to your child.

I was in fourth grade when I told my entrepreneurial parents that I, too, wanted to become an entrepreneur. First,...

As we build out our early-stage product (and find great folks to Alpha Test it) we’re naturally working on all of the things related to the back-end (e.g. data, modeling, etc.) as well as the front-end (e.g. design, UI/UX, etc.).

The exciting and yet challenging thing at this point is that we have a completely carte blanche environment and anything that we do initially isn’t inherently wrong or qualitatively bad.

Of course, on the flip-side, we can’t be sure that we’re doing anything right or well either. The only answer, of course, is the combination of rapid experimentation in conjunction with early customer interviews, which is what great startups will do naturally.

Some of the most poignant and powerful lessons-learned so far have also...

In case you were hiding under a rock, or happened to have plans this week, we hosted a Live Event and Q&A with Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal. The event was in partnership with General Assembly and Yahoo Small Business, and gave our audience a front row seat to the future of tech.

Peter discussed the state of entrepreneurship and how to build a business that hasn’t been built before. He emphasized the need to escape the rat race of competition and tackled tough questions from startup founders and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Check out the video and get an insider view into the mind of a man that has co-founded and founded billion dollar businesses, and had the vision to be the first outside investor in Facebook.

Jim Hendrickson has successfully started 4 companies and he has bought and sold 7 more, consistently building them to the double digits in sales and returns. He sat down with us last week during a Clarity Live session and gave us his best advice on why it is important to build an exit strategy. Below are some of his tips on the art of successful exits:

Exit strategies improve the odds of success for a business. Whether it be liquidation, selling the business, an acquisition, or an IPO, it is important to think about your exit ahead of time, and doing so will lead to improvements in many other areas of your company.

Management

Exit strategies can help conquer and shine a light on bad management situations. Understanding how you want to exit ...

This is Part II of our interview with Rhone co-Founder and CEO Nate Checketts. To check out Part I, click here.

I think that happens in every industry and every business, that there are these assumptions that nobody bothers asking about. And for us, especially at the beginning, it was important that we ask a lot of those questions.

The thing about inspiration is that it can come from anywhere. For Rhone co-Founder and CEO Nate Checketts, it came in the form of a smelly t-shirt.

“I was working at the NFL, and I got a lot of free product just by working there,” Nate remembers. “But the product would always start to smell after only a handful of washings.”

Nate credits a frank comment from his sister at a family gathering for getting the whe...

Coining a New Word for Putting Yourself in Another’s Shoes

One of the core values I have always championed is the ability to understand people and the decisions they make. I gave a speech recently on this subject and as I was pondering the best word to describe this core value, I discovered a hole in the English language. This could be a breakthrough or I could just be exposing my limited vocabulary.

The problem with working with people and teams is that you have to work with people and teams. Unlike working with computers and algorithms, when dealing with humanity, you have to factor feelings into decisions and actions. I looked up the definition of empathy to put in my slides but I realized that empathy, by definition, is the ability to u...

Data Visualization expert Bill Shander shared with us his tips, tricks and best practices for converting your data into compelling communications, regardless of your audience or the medium. Bill has over 2 decades of experience decoding data and helping clients communicate big ideas online – from startups and nonprofits to global corporations. Want to learn how to put data to work for your startup? Read his advice below.

The Four Main Types of Content

In order to engage readers of all interest levels, you have to create different types of content for your audience. The first type is “Water Cooler Content.” This includes things like headlines, visuals, and quick, 30 second or less videos. Think of these like a movie preview. 80% of people w...

If we all had the opportunity to go back to where we were at just a few years ago, I imagine we would have at least one piece of advice to share with our past selves that would eliminate unnecessary mistakes and wasted time. When you’re in the moment, you don’t really think about how certain actions (or a lack of actions) are really impacting you. Hindsight is always 20/20, though.

I recently had an opportunity to talk with Rob Walling about Drip, an email marketing automation platform launched in 2013 in an increasingly-competitive space, and how his productivity has increased over the years as he grew and learned from his errors.

Staying Productive With a Remote Workforce

Sujan: How about a quick introduction, Rob?

Rob: Sure. I’ve starte...