Yesterday I wrote about how the elevation of unimpressive women and POCs hurts the fight for equality and I’ve written in the past about “pretangels” and the damage they do to the ecosystem. Both situations – fake investors and incapable ecosystem leaders – are able to happen for the same reason: nobody calls them out. Continue Reading
If you’re in the startup or small business scene, you’ve been trained to always try to connect with angel investors, those mythical creatures who are super rich and want to put some of that money to work in your business. Continue Reading
A couple of months ago Ablorde Ashigbi, a current startup founder and former VC, wrote a blog post comparing the two gigs and this quote jumped out at me: “Wasting a founder’s time is equivalent to taking life from a company.” Continue Reading
Many of our favorite success stories follow the “hero’s journey.” This isn’t unique to the world of entrepreneurship, but there is one particular “hero’s journey” tale that is incredibly popular right now, is intimately tied to entrepreneurship theater, and that we should all examine a little more closely. Continue Reading
Very quick post today but it’s about a topic that I think is incredibly important for those who fund ESOs to take note of: entrepreneurship support should not be about sharing facts, figures, and well-known tools like the Lean Canvas, it should be about providing individualized assistance to the entrepreneurs we’re trying to serve. Continue Reading
Recently, an interesting report from ICIC and the JPMorgan Chase Foundation about high tech incubator and accelerator programs revives the question of whether historically oppressed and/or underrepresented groups benefit from programs that segregate them from their white male counterparts. Continue Reading
When you’re doing statistical analysis, N is your sample size. If you want results that are statistically significant, meaning that those results show an actual pattern as opposed to having likely just occurred by chance, you need a large enough sample size. Yes, I know this is a super dumbed-down simplification but stick with me…One of the things I see a lot in entrepreneurship circles is that business owners are willing to bet their entire companies on an N of 1, which is never statistically significant. Continue Reading
I’ve worked in the entrepreneurship support space for many years so I’ve been to my fair share of workshops, conferences, and roundtables with economic development professionals and one of the most frustrating aspects of these get-togethers for me has always been the desire of some to spend an inordinate amount of time discussing useless crap that doesn’t matter at all. Continue Reading
Admittedly, I have a number of pet peeves, at least one of which I’ve already covered in this blog series, and today’s post is about another: the word “intrapreneur.” Continue Reading
Yesterday I wrote about how non-profit entrepreneurship support organizations (ESOs) play games with the numbers they report to showcase their success. Today, I continue that conversation but focus on how foundations do the same. Continue Reading