A founder I was meeting for the first time was telling me about her startup. She spent the first 15-ish minutes of our meeting describing her project. Then, once she’d told me everything she wanted to explain, she asked a question that, to her, seemed simple. …
In a fundraising pitch, only one slide really matters. Do you know which one?
Uncertainty is at the heart of some of the most popular TV shows and movies. That includes things like murder mysteries, suspense dramas, action blockbusters, heist films, crime thrillers, and any number of other genres. As viewers watch the stories unfold, they mentally piece together the narrative clues while wondering…
Is it because ice cream is delicious? Well… sort of…
One of the things that’s always attracted me to Internet-based businesses is their scalability. In all of human history, what other types of businesses could be built and operated from a single location while serving customers around the world? The efficiency of this kind of global reach makes the profit…
What’s best for your startup might not always be enjoyable
“You spoke too quickly,” said one of the students in my class. “It was really hard to understand what you were trying to tell us.”
The student wasn’t talking to me. Instead, I was having students in my entrepreneurship class practice their startup pitches for each other, and she was…
VC can be great for your startup, but it can also create lots problems. Do you really know what you’re getting into?
“We finally got a term sheet!” the founder exclaimed before we’d even sat down with our drinks. I was at a coffee shop meeting with an impressive young entrepreneur I’d been advising for a few years, and he was clearly excited to share his big news. “It’s for $500k,” he…
In theory, it’s a lot easier than you might think…
One of my colleagues was teaching a class about Amazon so he and his students could explore the e-commerce giant’s impact on… well… pretty much everything. …
The only person you help by comparing yourself to your competition is your competition
Early in my entrepreneurial career, I had a bad habit of what might be best described as “founder voyeurism.” By that I mean I constantly monitored (“stalked” is possibly a better word?) …
And it’s not because it tastes good…
Speed is one of the startup world’s most valued qualities. Just think about all the terms and concepts related to entrepreneurship that emphasize speed. Startups are praised for being agile and nimble. Products should be developed using rapid prototyping strategies. Companies should “move fast, and break things.” Founders should “fail…
With the right strategy, the thing harming your company could become the thing that helps you take it to the next level.
My co-founder and I used to argue. A lot.
We’d argue about important things like marketing strategies and product features and employee hiring decisions. And we’d argue about stupid things like whether it’s better to build pitch decks using Google Slides or Microsoft PowerPoint (answer: always PowerPoint).
Basically, if a…
Aaron Dinin, PhD
I teach entrepreneurship at Duke. Software Engineer. PhD in English. I write about the mistakes entrepreneurs make since I’ve made plenty. More @ aarondinin.com
