If you’re a non-technical founder, while your team is building and refining your product, you’ve got to figure out what to do with your time. find that first time CEOs often find themselves doing two things, neither of which is productive. If you’re going to do product, do product. An example of a standard deal is the one that del.icio.us MORE >>

Although the average dollar amounts raised aren’t very high, they still might be sufficient enough to put towards some market research, early concept exploration, product samples and the like.  Here’s a message board response by one of the founders of Profounder in which they lay out the legal basis for what they are doing.  MORE >>

Unfortunately in early stage startups the drive for financing hijacks the corporate DNA and becomes the raison d’etre of the company. The goal of their startup in this stage becomes “getting funded.” What are Early Stage VC’s Really Asking? If they’re not busy looking at their Blackberry’s/iPhone’s.) Later?” MORE >>

Having said that, when we talk about founders and startups we often think of it as something intrinsic to the people, something inside them, built into their very beings. In this case, I’ll use the phrase “Founder DNA&# (borrowed from Raymond Luk ). For starters, it’s expected that all founders are passionate. MORE >>

Paying yourself isn’t a good enough reason to justify raising early stage funding. Here’s a fairly common scenario for startup founders: Two or three people decide to start a company. Founders at an early stage have to pay themselves below market value. They quit their day jobs. I’m not. MORE >>