Paul Polak, a Pop!Tech 2008 featured speaker, has been starting businesses since he was 15. He’s now 75, and says he has succeeded — and failed — with more ventures than he can count. Polak’s first was a strawberry distribution operation in his hometown… Read More »
FoundRead
Late last week, my partners and I here at Polaris Ventures hosted a summit for all of our portfolio companies in and around the online advertising sector. In addition to the some 20 portfolio executives that attended, we brought in a handful of senior industry execs… Read More »
This week I was in Camden, Maine, attending Pop!Tech, an annual gathering of thought leaders in technology and design launched in 1996. This year Pop!Tech inaugurated a three-day bootcamp for social entrepreneurs, called the Social Innovation Fellowship Program, the latest addition to Pop!Tech’s… Read More »
Someone recently pointed out to me that “a crisis is the ultimate teachable moment.” Startup founders have long known this. Whether you find yourself dealing with a sudden lack of access to commercial loans, the collapse of a funding round, a management change, or even a… Read More »
By now Sequoia’s “RIP” slide deck and the ensuing blog coverage have been consumed by every entrepreneur and investor in the tech universe. It hit a nerve. Perhaps it provided a wake-up call, or simply confirmed people’s worst fears. For first-time entrepreneurs, or for… Read More »
Fundraising always demands patience and grit, but passing the hat in the current environment will test your founder’s mettle unlike any time in recent history. Even investors still flush with cash that, only weeks ago, they had planned to put to work, now have grown skittish… Read More »
The economy is changing in dramatic and unexpected ways, and many of us are having a difficult time deciding how to react. Should we adopt a bunker mentality, or keep plugging ahead as if little has changed? The fact is that entrepreneurs are well-suited to… Read More »
I managed to get ahold of the details of Sequoia’s startup meeting that we reported on yesterday. The message wasn’t the prettiest, but there was a lot of good advice — to which all startups should to pay attention. Read More »
Being smart about legal matters can make a huge difference in the value of your company. Each legal decision you make — each strategic partnership, each trademark or patent filing — can add or subtract from it. During the ’90s, my law firm worked with an… Read More »
I was crazy enough to start two businesses at the same time — OnlyBusiness.com and Polaris Blue. My partner and I run them concurrently, and fortunately both have done well. No doubt we got lucky, but I want to share a concept critical… Read More »
We’ve written recently about how bootstrapping founders can help themselves navigate a very tight credit market. Now, the implosion of the investment banking industry promises to level what was left of the landscape for both IPO and M&A exits. Startup founders would be wise to reassess… Read More »
More Must Reads
