TeenSharks Book Stand

Table of Contents
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Starting a venture has never be easier exceeding has never been harder
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Try to act normal
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Aim for an order of magnitude improvement
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Start small but be ambitious
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Most failures result from poor execution not unsuccessful innovation
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The best idea originates from founders who are users
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Don't scale your technology until it works
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Manage with maniacal focus
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Target fast growing dynamic markets
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Never hire the second-best
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Conduct your hiring interviews as see if you're an airline pilot
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A part-time game changer is preferable to a full time seat filler
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Manager team like a jazz band
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Instead of a free lunch, provide meaningful work
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Team of professionals with a common mission makes the most attractive investment
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Use your financials to tell your story
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Create to business plans, an execution plan and a aspiration plan
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Know your financial members and their interdependence by heart
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Net income is an opinion but cash flow is a fact
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Unity economics tell you whether you have a business
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Manage working capital as if it were your only source of funds
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excellent exercise district its financial discipline
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Always be frugal
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To get where you are going you need to know where you are going
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Measurement comes with pitfalls
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Operational setbacks require swift and deep cutbacks
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Safe surprises for birthdays not for your stakeholders
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Strategic pivots offer silver linings
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Don't accept money from strangers
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Incubators are good for finding investors but not for developing business
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Avoid venture capital unless you absolutely need it
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If you choose venture capital pick the right type of the investor
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Conduct detailed due diligence on your investors
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Personal wealth is not good investing
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Choose investors who think like operators
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Deal directly with the decision makers
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Find stable investors
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Select investors who can help future financings
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Investors syndicates needs to be managed
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Capital intensive ventures required deep financial pockets
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Strategic investors pose unique challenges
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Raise capital in stages as you remove risks
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Minimizing dilutions is not your fund raising objective
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Don't let a temporary fix become a permanent mistake
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Pursue the lowest cost capital in light of your circumstances
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Escape the traps of venture debt
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Choose one of four approaches to determine how much money to raise
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Always have your aspirational plans ready
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More ventures fail from indigestion since from starvation
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Never stop fundraising
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Venture capital moves in cycles
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Fund raising takes more time than you think
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The pitch must answer the fundamental questions about your venture
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Make it personal
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When pitching carefully read the room
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Use white papers for deep dive follow-ups
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Prepare your financing document ahead of time
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Obsessively drive the close
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Constant communication is important in convincing investors
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Milestones can solve irreconcilable valuation differences
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Liquidation preference will change your outcome safe
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Do not take rejections personally
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Boards are deliberation bodies not collection of individuals
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Conflicts of interest and conflicting interest are elephants in room
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Your board should be operational rather than administrative
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Small boards are better than big ones next one
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Lead investors ask for board seats quantify them first
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You need a lead director
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Add independent board members for expertise and objectivity
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True board diversity is a competitive advantage
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Each director must commit to spending meaningful time
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Review director performance regularly
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Your chief financial officer has a special relationship with your board
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The founder should choose the best CEO available
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Find a coach
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It is the CEOs job to run efficient productive meetings
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Don't oversell your board
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Board agenda should look like this
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Prepare thoroughly for board meetings
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Use your daily management materials for board meetings
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Too many unanimous board decisions is a sign of trouble
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Use a working sessions and committees to reinforce your priorities
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Your board should spend time with your team
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Building companies to last, providing liquidity along the way
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Who liquidity is not limited to initial public offerings and acquisitions
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If you go public don't slip and fall
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Investors and management's interest in liquidity often conflicts
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Individual needed liquidity too
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Your evaluation will have a local maximum
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Ventures aren't just bought they can also be sold
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Choose an acquisitor, don’t wait to be chosen
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If you want to sell your business you need to know the decision-makers
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Determine whether you are a good fit for acquisition before contacting them
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Know your acquisitor’s acquisition history in detail
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Make yourself visible
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Build a relationship with potential acquisitions don't cold call
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Be ready when they are
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Success is not linear
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Prepare for your lucky break
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Learn the rules by heart so you know when to break them