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Series A startup funding is an important milestone for many early-stage startups. It is the first round of significant institutional funding, and it can provide the resources and support needed to take a startup to the next level.

In this article, we will explore what series A funding is, how it differs from other types of funding, and what startups can do to increase their chances of securing this crucial form of financing.

What is Series A Funding?

Series A funding is the first round of institutional funding that a startup receives after completing its seed funding round. It is typically sought by startups that have a proven product or service and are looking to accelerate their growth. Series A funding allows startups to build out their te...

Starting a business or becoming a professional athlete requires a unique combination of motivation, drive, and determination. Founders and professional athletes must be highly motivated and driven in order to achieve their goals and make a lasting impact in their respective fields.

In addition to being motivated and driven, both groups must also be able to handle high levels of competition and pressure, adapt and pivot in the face of change, have the resilience to bounce back from setbacks and failures, work well as part of a team, and continuously learn and improve in order to stay competitive.

The 6 Similarities that allow Founders and Athletes to Achieve Success

1. Founders and professional athletes must be highly motivated and driven to succ...

When it comes to building a website for your business, it's important to choose the right type of website that will meet your needs and goals. There are several different types of websites to choose from, each with its own set of features and benefits. And choosing which website is best might be a litter overwhelming.

Some websites are more useful than others, depending on your business's industry. Some are easier to maintain while others are just plain confusing. That's where we come in. We've put together a quick guide that will help you figure out what type of website is best for your business.

Read on for tips on choosing the perfect website for your business model with insight from our community members to help you along the way.

Most Co...

The hard thing about failure is putting it into perspective. Startups Fail. All the time.

I speak to Founders and co-founders all the time who are going through the most brutal moments of their professional careers. For them, it feels like an eternity, and more importantly, it feels like a permanent tombstone for the rest of their career.

For me, it's the millionth time I've seen the same story play out. A Founder gets fired up about a new venture and building something amazing, it goes well for a while, then out of nowhere it tanks, and the Founder feels like it's the end of the world. Except I've been doing this for 30 years, and I've had plenty of these moments myself.

What matters in these moments is getting some perspective on how fleetin...

These are all valid questions, and there is no one-size-fits-all answer. For some people, retirement makes perfect sense — especially if you don't enjoy your job or feel like it's not fulfilling your needs. But for others, early retirement isn't necessarily the best choice.

If you love what you do and it fulfills you, then why stop? Continuing to work can give you a sense of purpose and accomplishment. And if you're passionate about what you do, continuing to work can keep you engaged and active in life.

Startup founders need to be aware of the impact of "quiet quitting" at a startup.

• Quiet quitting refers to when employees stop doing the work, but still show up for the paycheck

• It's a manager's issue, not an employee issue

• Employers have little visibility over their teams like they used to in offices, but that's not really the issue

Quiet Quitting isn't a New Phenomenon

Employees Quiet quitting has been around since the dawn of work, but remote work has made it increasingly difficult for employers to see the warning signs.

To manage and prevent quiet quitting, employers must focus on creating an environment where employees feel supported, valued, and heard, with clear expectations set ahead of time that is regularly followed up on. Creating ...

If our startup sinks, everyone else gets a life raft — but Founders go down with the ship.

There are a million stories about how other entrepreneurs were able to scale successfully, but what we rarely hear about is what happens when things aren't so rosy, which is ironic since most startups don't have that picturesque outcome AND this is a great learning opportunity.

The reality is most Founders find themselves inextricably tied to their startup baby at a very personal financial level.

This means when things go sideways, it's not just the startup that's in jeopardy — it's our personal lives that get pulled into the mucky-muck. And if this is your first startup — this may not be apparent at all.

Most Big, Successful Businesses of Today Were ...

There's an inflection point in growing startups where our focus shifts from building products and helping customers to hiring staff and dealing with internal bullshit. That shift in focus is the death knell for growing startups as it slowly and completely takes our eye off the ball.

If we look at larger companies we can see this in full view. 90% of their focus (sometimes all of it) is spent internally with warring parties and fiefdoms more focused on their jobs and career paths than anything the company actually produces. (I've made the argument before that all the important stuff was probably done long before them anyway.)

Our job as Founders is to do everything in our power to prevent this loss of focus, and it absolutely starts with us.

Next we're going to analyze our financial statements and operating expenses to see if they accurately reflect all of the financial transactions we just inputted. If you're using your own accounting software to update your company's income statement that works too.

The nice thing about our handy Income Statement is that once we plug in all the values, the story from there is essentially told. All of our columns add up and ultimately tell us the honest truth – “did we make any money?”

Did We Make Any Money?

How we use this information is key. The Analysis step here is about getting all the troops rallied (assuming we have troops to rally) and ask:

“What did we just learn, and what changes do we need to make?”

Unlike a Profit and Loss Statement, ou...

We're going to update our financial statements using a simple accounting process that requires zero professional accounting experience or accounting software — it's just our income statement spreadsheet.

Click here to download our template to follow along.

The next step after we've captured all of our financial transactions in our spreadsheet accounting system will be to process each of the financial records in order. Earlier we began recording transactions from our bank accounts and credit card statements, so now we'll drop them into the Tabs we set aside for business expenses and revenue.

What Tabs will we Populate?

We've broken our spreadsheet accounting system into a handful of useful tabs to populate.

Here's the quick list, then we'll go ov...