Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tnCVMAtf9E

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we present Tim O’Reilly, the founder and CEO of O’Reilly Media and a brilliant entrepreneur.

In this interesting, five-minute clip from a couple of months ago (courtesy of Stanford University’s Entrepreneurship Corner), Tim discusses the following three nuggets for entrepreneurs:

• the importance of “getting…deeper into your customers’ problems”;
• how “great companies have big, hairy, audacious goals” (citing Built to Last); and
• how “great companies have an idea about transforming the lives of their customers”  (citing “Who Do You Want Your Customers to Become?”).

I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnOaAVt_jVc

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxwrRpvD3Zs

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we present Dick Costolo, the CEO of Twitter and a very impressive leader.

In this interesting, three-minute clip from a few years ago, Dick provides the following four nuggets to entrepreneurs:

• Have an authentic company voice;
• Have an entrance strategy, not an exit strategy;
• Don’t maximize short-term revenues by sacrificing long-term goals; and
• Launch late to launch often.

I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQY0cgT77VA

Top 5 Tweets

1. “What are the early symptoms that a startup is going to fail?” Solid response via @williampietri:  http://b.qr.ae/10oSn2u
2. Quora: “How much money should I raise?” A few solid responses:  http://b.qr.ae/Yo38bf
3. “Recognize that VCs negotiate for a living.” -@bfeld  http://on.wsj.com/12d8zbi
4. “If you don’t understand the tax effects of the deal, you probably don’t understand the deal.” -@davidlee  http://bit.ly/11DToI6
5. In [VC] Deals, Not Every Founder Will Be a Zuckerberg – “the rights negotiated by entrepreneurs…really matter”  http://nyti.ms/18cV8vF

Blog-Related

1. “In theory, experience is a plus; in practice, it is often a bit of a minus…” -Peter Thiel  http://bit.ly/ZLEcIR
2. New motivational vid post: “Screw ‘Em, This Is Your Time”  http://bit.ly/Y4ACZW
3. “When people laugh at the idea or laugh at the company…, that’s usually in my mind a good sign.” -Fred Wilson  http://bit.ly/15amAec

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we post a short video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.

This week, we present Fred Wilson, a super smart investor and the Managing Partner of two VC firms, Flatiron Partners and Union Square Ventures.  In this outstanding interview by Michael Arrington, Founder of TechCrunch, Fred shares some words of wisdom for entrepreneurs with respect to fundraising and pitching investors, including the following:

• “When people laugh at the idea or laugh at the company…, that’s usually in my mind a good sign.” (at 1:56)
• “What I think you need to do is get [investors] engaged in a conversation as quickly as possible… If you only get through one slide because the partnership has hijacked the conversation, that’s the best thing that can ever happen.” (at 5:45)
• “Going through a really long back story is a bad idea.” (at 6:33)
• “I prefer someone to come in and make a really bold, audacious statement right off the bat.” (at 7:11)
• “Hook the [investor] and then reel them in.” (at 7:48)
• “It’s better to show the product [first] and then talk about [it]…” (at 8:38)
• “The best entrepreneurs are the ones who will listen to you, but won’t take orders from you.” (at 14:50)
• “You want [to invest in] somebody who is crazy, but mentally healthy.” (at 15:30)
• “To see things differently than other people see them and to have the courage to know you’re right requires somebody to be wired-up a little differently.” (at 16:25)
• “I think crazy is a compliment…I think you make money with people who are crazy.” (at 19:18)

I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcgofzvc5k

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwpTj_Z9v-c

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.

This week, we present (i) Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and a brilliant entrepreneur and investor; and (ii) Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, a partner at Greylock and another brilliant guy.

In this interesting, five-minute clip Peter and Reid share some words of wisdom for entrepreneurs, including the following solid quotes:

• “Assembling a crew of people who are very smart, very fast learners [is] kind of the key to a success in a startup.” –Reid Hoffman (at 2:11)
• “In theory, experience is a plus; in practice, it is often a bit of a minus because people are less open to learning new things or they are more set in doing a particular job…” –Peter Thiel (at 2:45)
• “There’s maybe 20 or 30 percent where you follow certain rules…, but 70 to 80 percent of it is about doing something that’s never been done – and if it’s been done before, you’re not really an entrepreneur…” –Peter Thiel (at 3:21)
• “The ability to succeed in each new wave requires that mental agility and flexibility to [ask] ‘what are the rules now?’.” –Reid Hoffman (at 5:28)

I hope you enjoy it (and special thanks to Thomas Korte of AngelPad for sharing this video).  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiTfx4bECDA

Top 5 Tweets

1. Quora: What are the most useful laws that every entrepreneur should know of?  http://b.qr.ae/17pVP4l
2. Amen: “the e-mails highlighted the perverse incentives of the billable-hour system”  http://nyti.ms/15jfuDB
3. Kudos to Ron Conway: A Silicon Valley Vision for San Francisco – “You need a catalyst, so I’m a catalyst.”  http://nyti.ms/17B2HsN
4. “Although our company did not succeed…, we all learned more in the past year than we had in college.” -@nemrow  http://bit.ly/Yr73D8
5. Quora: “What should I do if I have lost confidence in my startup?” A few interesting responses:  http://b.qr.ae/17HRucW

Blog-Related

1. “If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling.” -Arnold Schwarzenegger  http://bit.ly/17QliE6
2. “An engineer is the closest thing to a magician that exists in the real world.” -Elon Musk  http://bit.ly/ZpV5Vs

“If I would have listened to the naysayers, I would still be in the Austrian Alps yodeling.” – Arnold Schwarzenegger

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH0nP4NzS9M

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

In this interesting, one-minute clip from a couple of years ago, Elon shares some words of wisdom for entrepreneurs.  My favorite quote:  “Companies that don’t make good products or services just should not exist.”  I hope you enjoy it.  Many thanks, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQusYd0Vijo

If you would like to learn more about Elon and his amazing entrepreneurial career, you can watch the Bloomberg documentary below.  My favorite quote:  “An engineer is the closest thing to a magician that exists in the real world.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTJt547–AM

Top 5 Tweets

1. “Be careful not to have too many co-founders; it’s the most expensive dilution you’ll ever face.” -@msuster  http://bit.ly/ZilCKX 
2. “[T]he strongest correlation to success has been the founding team – much more than the idea…” -@Bill_Gross  http://b.qr.ae/16EpQMr 
3. Quora: What are some of the most ridiculous startup ideas which eventually became successful?  http://b.qr.ae/10xhfIA 
4. Seed Finance Survey 2012 (via Fenwick) http://bit.ly/X8y7r9 
5. Quora: “What separates the top 10% of startup CEOs from the rest?” Some solid responses:  http://b.qr.ae/Yvw15y 

Top 5 Tweets

1. Quora: “What are the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make?” Some interesting responses:  http://b.qr.ae/XY4bwt
2. “[S]ome investors deliberately mislead startups about how interested they are in investing.” -Paul Graham  http://bit.ly/XaFARm
3. Benefits matter, or why I won’t work for your Y Combinator start-up — interesting post/perspective via @mhalligan  http://bit.ly/13cV27n
4. Quora: “What does it feel like to be the CEO of a startup that fails?” A few solid responses:  http://b.qr.ae/10J53nz
5. “First to file” patent law starts today: what it means in plain English (via @gigaom)  http://bit.ly/15k776k

Blog-Related

1. “Mediocrity is for losers.” -Seth Godin  http://bit.ly/YHkVns  (at 0:26)
2. New motivational vid post: “He’s Paying His Dues. When Have You Paid Yours?”  http://bit.ly/XwfY1o

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week we present marketing guru Seth Godin with words of wisdom for entrepreneurs. My favorite quote: mediocrity is for losers (at 0:26).  I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KBrRLI4ozag

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

Top 5 Tweets

1. “Everything is on Google. The world only cares and will only pay for what you can do with what you know.” -Tom Friedman  http://nyti.ms/WK35Ax
2. Quora: “What are some telltale signs a startup team is going to outperform or underperform other teams?”  http://b.qr.ae/ZZdevF  via @jasonlk
3. “I used it to try to teach myself Basic while recovering from hangovers and sleeping on the floor…” -Mark Cuban  http://bit.ly/XB9Wwb
4. Quora: “What is ONE piece of advice you would give first-time entrepreneurs?” Some interesting responses:  http://b.qr.ae/129Jwt0
5. A New Way to Trade Shares in Private Companies (via Bloomberg) – “to be called Nasdaq Private Market”  http://buswk.co/XXoc2C

Blog-Related

1. New motivational vid post: “We Would Sleep on the Desk and Use a Dictionary as a Pillow”  http://bit.ly/Y105zW
2. “The best people want to work on a mission they believe in, but they also want to make a bunch of money.” -Zuck  http://bit.ly/XZlDNg  (at 4:31)
3. New motivational vid post: “If I Can Do It, So Can Many, Many Others”  http://bit.ly/14bfBvW

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAni7SUH754

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we post a short video clip of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.

This week, we again present Mark Zuckerberg with words of wisdom for entrepreneurs (starting at 3:55).  My favorite quote: “The best people want to work on a mission they believe in, but they also want to make a bunch of money.” I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQzyfvTlBN0

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.”  Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs.  Why?  Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward.  I hope these videos are a little juice.  Cheers, Scott

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4rSmk5Cnz4

Top 5 Tweets

1. Quora: “As an entrepreneur, what’s the best bit of advice you’ve been given?” Some solid nuggets:  http://b.qr.ae/Y9JUPC
2. “We the investors…share a lot of the blame for creating the fiction around startups.” -@paigecraig  http://tcrn.ch/VA71ZG
3. Quora: What are the advantages of raising money from 20+ angels in your seed round? Interesting responses:  http://b.qr.ae/YyAlMb
4. “If I can leave with one piece of advice to young founders. Pls think really hard about taking other peoples money.”  http://bit.ly/13aSchV
5. “Be wary of lawyers who are not familiar w/early stage startup work…can cause all sorts of unwanted trouble.” -@dshen  http://bit.ly/Z38ZPh

Blog-Related

1. “What you do with those early investment dollars…is you go about systematically trying to eliminate risk.” -Jeff Bezos  http://bit.ly/14VCXb6
2. I just uploaded this solid vid of @thegdb (founding engineer @stripe) re recruiting 101:  http://bit.ly/ZvR1Zz
3. New motivational vid post: “If I Fail, I Try Again and Again and Again…It’s Not the End”  http://bit.ly/WfMeFq

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4uG2kSdd-4

To Our Clients & Friends: Welcome to our weekly series “Helping Entrepreneurs Succeed.”  Each week, we share a favorite video of a successful entrepreneur, investor or business leader on a variety of topics.  This week, we present Greg Brockman, founding engineer at Stripe and a smart, young entrepreneur.

In this solid 20-minute clip (courtesy of First Round Capital), Greg discusses how Stripe has built one of Silicon Valley’s best engineering teams and provides the following nuggets for founders:

• The only thing that has worked “really well” is referrals;
• Inbound is easy to collect, but is “not very fruitful”;
• Working with recruiters has been “spectacularly unsuccessful”;
• When talking to a potential candidate via a referral, the key is to “start out casual” (e.g., IM, a cup of coffee, etc.);
• If you’re going to recruit people you already know, you have to “play the long game”;
• Think about recruiting the same way you think about marketing — i.e., get people really excited about your company;
• “Be aware of subtle cultural signals”;
• Your job is to prove to the candidate that he or she will be happy at your company;
• The interview should be focused on distinguishing the good from the great;
• Personal references are “incredibly high signal”;
• Make the interview as similar to the role as possible (e.g, a hack project);
• Apply the “Sunday Test” to each candidate: ask yourself, if this person were alone in the office on a Sunday, would that make you more likely to want to come in and work with them?  If the answer is not a “clear yes,” don’t hire them.
• Trust your instincts – your initial instincts are usually right;
• “Hire people, not roles” – hire great people as long as you “can see where they might fit.”
• Recruiting is a “mindset” — “always be recruiting.”

I hope you enjoy it.  Cheers, Scott

Welcome to our weekly series “Motivational Clips for Entrepreneurs.” Each week, we share a favorite video clip to inspire and motivate entrepreneurs. Why? Because we know how tough it is being an entrepreneur; and whether you’re launching a venture, trying to execute your business model or raising funds, you need a little juice to help you push the ball forward. I hope these videos are a little juice. Cheers, Scott