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Many leaders start their careers with hopes of reaching the top as quickly as possible, skipping past lower-level positions as they scale the corporate ladder. This is particularly true in the startup scene, where founders essentially choose their own titles and begin their careers in management positions.

My career did not have such a direct trajectory. I meandered through the insurance industry for decades before I finally secured a leadership role. I started out working for my parents’ company, doing the grunt work of the office. I generated invoices, processed mail, and even handled janitorial duties. I was the youngest person in the office and the lowest on the totem pole, so I didn’t have a problem earning my stripes. Some people mig...

“Our target market is everyone!”

If we had a dollar for every time we heard these words from Founders here at Startups.co, we would have… okay, so we’re not quite sure. But it would be a lot of dollars.

We get it: planting your flag and defining your target market can be scary. It means taking a stand and proclaiming to the world, “This is who we are.” And, maybe just as scary and definitely just as important, “This is who we aren’t.”

But let us give it to you straight: your target market is not “everyone.” At least, not right away. And you know something else? You don’t want it to be, either.

What is a target market?

In layman’s terms, a target market is a group or groups of consumers in which a product or service is intended for.

T...

What is a term sheet?

In the context of startups, term sheet is the first formal — but non-binding — document between a startup founder and an investor. A term sheet lays out the terms and conditions for investment. It’s used to negotiate the final terms, which are then written up in a contract.

A good term sheet aligns the interests of the investors and the founders, because that’s better for everyone involved (and the company) in the long run. A bad term sheet pits investors and founders against each other.

Let’s take a look at the elements of a good term sheet — and some elements every founder should be sure to avoid.

What is included in a term sheet?

While each term sheet is going to be different, depending on the specifics of the star...

Tech has a very obvious diversity problem — and it’s coming out in insidious ways. For example, in April, Snapchat released a Bob Marley filter that essentially put users in blackface.

In August, they came out with a yellow face filter, which transformed users’ faces into a stereotypically “Asian” face. These racist releases from a company that boasts 8 billion video views per day had people around the world wondering how, exactly, these filters slipped through the filter.

The answer is simple: They’re not designing for a diverse audience.

It’s one thing to say ‘We’re trying to make tech more inclusive’ but what we’re really trying to do is create places where people feel they belong.

Benjamin Evans is a UX/UI designer who has worked ...

After nearly twenty years of covering the tech world, I’ve been able to interview most of the great entrepreneurs of our time. Maybe you’d be star struck by Elon Musk or squeal at the site of Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie. I had to throttle those feelings back when I interviewed, Julie Rice and Elizabeth Cutler in 2015.

Rice and Cutler founded SoulCycle, which is not only an urban cult-like sensation in places like New York, LA, San Francisco, Chicago and dozens of other cities, it started the boutique fitness craze.

It didn’t seem smart or obvious in 2006: To charge a whopping $30 a class, for something that was already bundled into most gym memberships. But it worked. SoulCycle did well enough, it sold almost all of its shares to Equinox, star...

Angel investors are typically high net worth individuals who look to put relatively small amounts of money into startups, typically ranging from a few thousand dollars to as much as a million dollars.

Angels are often one of the more accessible forms of early stage capital for an entrepreneur and as such are a critical part of the equity fundraising ecosystem.

The Benefits of an Angel Investor

The most beneficial aspect to working with an angel investor is that they can usually make an investment decision on their own. Not having to manage a partnership or corporate hierarchy of decision-making allows the angel investor to make bets that they feel comfortable with personally. Often this is what an entrepreneur needs, early in their startup&...

Social media is a marketing tool pre-Internet marketers could only dream of. A virtually complete directory of every consumer on the planet? Indexed and targetable by age, gender, location, and a hundred other identifiable details? Maybe in science fiction, a marketer of 40 years ago would have said.

Never forget, startup founders and marketers of the 21st century: we are living in the future.

But, as they say, with great power comes great responsibility. Social media is a tool. And, like, any tool, it is only as good as how it’s used – and what it’s used for. Nowhere is that more clear than in the world of social media advertising.

When it comes to social media advertising, execution is everything. And here’s the thing: ninety percen...

Creating an effective pitch deck is one of the most important tools for getting a new venture off the ground. It can feel like an impossible task — especially if you lack design skills or are low on funds.

However, this guide demonstrates a detailed and reliable process to create a successful pitch deck without having to outsource the work. Remain in control of your project and influence investors to get on-board. Let’s get started!

Importance of a Pitch Deck

Take this scenario as an example, my friend Luke and I have been bootstrapping a brand new project called Kangarooo. It’s a mobile interface with travel guides as well as the ability to search local activities and even book them right on the app, created specifically for travelers in ...

“Success can be achieved only through repeated failure and introspection. In fact, success represents 1 percent of your work, which results only from the 99 percent that is called failure.”

It’s time to talk about something nobody likes to talk about. It’s time to talk about failure.

Failure is one of the most fundamental components of the startup experience – and one of the least talked about. There’s this weird thing that happens when people talk about failure: voices get hushed, people start looking around them, worried that someone might overhear.

Talking about failure is taboo #1 in the startup community – but that’s not doing us any favors. Because here’s the thing: startups fail all the time. And not only do they fail – f...

The year is 1985, the month is June. Oakridge, Tennessee is hot and humid. I had recently watched a cartoon where the protagonists opened a lemonade stand, and I was inspired to do the same.

I faced a challenge in that our house was situated at the very end of a cul-de-sac and flanked by empty lots. Great for privacy, bad for foot traffic. The neighborhood was in a new area, and much of it was undergoing active development and construction.

So, in a move that predates the frenzied food truck trend by thirty years, I loaded an Igloo™ water cooler filled with fresh-made lemonade into my red Radio Flyer™ wagon. Armed with a sleeve of paper cups and my Ft. Knox combination lock piggy bank I headed down the street towards the nearest constructio...