Most first and second pitch meetings with VCs are fairly lopsided, where entrepreneurs spend the bulk of the time sharing their businesses, rather than being a true exchange of both parties in developing a relationship. However, it’s rare that a venture capitalist is going to point-blank admit that his pockets are empty. It just all depends. MORE >>

I see more and more entrepreneurs who seem to have everything going for them – vision, motivation, passion, even a good business plan, product, and money, and yet they can’t close customers. found their five phases of the process to be compelling, based on my own years of experience mentoring startups: Nail the pain. Nail the solution. Scale it. MORE >>

There is no specific ratio between “sweat equity” and cash in a venture, and that’s actually not a good way to think about the issue. Other things, such as your particular time and effort, are not. better way to think about this is to separate two aspects of the “sweat” that one puts into a new venture. MORE >>

Online is clearly taking share from brick and mortar…this is likely to continue. International Council of Shopping Centers, last week. America has too many malls. ve recently blogged that many traditional brick-and-mortar retailers are being threatened with “economic destruction” by their advantaged online competition.  do not look very healthy.  MORE >>

What separates the master networkers from the amateurs? The former tend not to make these mistakes. Lots of articles describe how to create a more marketable LinkedIn profile, how to find the right groups to join, how to choose the best profile photo. should know, I've written about that. Oh, and that. Yep, and that too. Then it's tacky. You can't. MORE >>