Category Archives: Entrepreneurship

How to Go From Nail It to Scale It

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How to Go From Nail It to Scale It

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

The startup journey is about going from fail it to nail to scale it to sale it. You have to:

  1. set up and fail at conducting the right business model and experiments to find a profitable and scalable business and economic model (fail it)
  2. fix what’s broken (nail it)
  3. then feed the machine so that when you put customers in the top, profits come out the bottom (scale it) or you create value for more and more patients.
  4. Then you decide whether and when to exit (sale it).

Peter Thiel, in his book, Zero to One, suggests that going from nail it to scale it will take having a:

  1. proprietary technology and barriers to entry, now and in the future
  2. networking effect
  3. branding
  4. economies of scale

Can you answer these questions?

  1. Can you create proprietary, breakthrough technology instead of incremental improvements?
  2. Is the time right to start your business?
  3. Are you thinking big and starting small, capturing a big share of a small market? Market share is the key to profitability.
  4. Are the right people on the bus?
  5. What is your innovation to market plan?
  6. Will you still be around in 10 years? Why? How good are you at seeing around corners?
  7. What’s your unique selling proposition, or, are you just trying to be the best of the rest?

What else? How do you get from nail it to scale it? How do you cross the chasm? How do you traverse the traction gap?

  1. How to build your personal brand.
  2. How to kill your brand
  3. Connect to the connectors
  4. Find customers one at a time
  5. Why coldLinking does not work
  6. What you won’t learn from Sales Navigator
  7. Build robust internal and external networks
  8. Partner up.
  9. Measure everything
  10. Have a digical sales and marketing strategy and execute it.
  11. Startup website basics
  12. The 7Rs of content marketing
  13. Why doctors are losing the branding wars
  14. The ABCDEs of technology adoption
  15. What you should know about dissemination and implementation
  16. How to sell your digital health product
  17. Barriers to AI dissemination and implementation
  18. What physician entrepreneurs don’t get about sales and marketing
  19. So, if patients are customers, how do you sell to them?
  20. What is the next minimal viable category? Have you identified a unique opportunity others don’t see?

As you can see, getting customer #2 (early adopters) is harder than getting customer #1 (innovator/evangelist). It takes people and systems, a sense of urgency, money and metrics. With so many employees quitting their jobs, don’t forget about the people who stick around.

Image credit: Pixabay

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The Academic Intrapreneur Dossier

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The Academic Intrapreneur Dossier

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

Entrepreneurial universities and medical schools, as rare as they are, require intrapreneurial faculty i.e. faculty who are trying to act like entrepreneurs in their institutions. One way to recruit, develop and promote faculty intrapreneurs is to recognize their entrepreneurial inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes as part of the promotion and tenure process, which typically requires submitting a dossier to the promotion and tenure committee.

There is national and international recognition of the importance of innovation, technology transfer, and entrepreneurship for sustained economic revival. The Office of Budget and Management cites rising healthcare costs and the associate deficits to deal with it as a matter of national security.

With the decline of industrial research laboratories in the United States, research universities are being asked to play a central role in our knowledge-centered economy by the technology transfer of their discoveries, innovations, and inventions. In response to this challenge, innovation ecologies at and around universities are starting to change. However, the change has been slow and limited. Some researchers, myself included, believe this can be attributed partially to a lack of change in incentives for the central stakeholder, the faculty member. They have taken the position that universities should expand their criteria to treat patents, licensing, and commercialization activity by faculty as an important consideration for merit, tenure, and career advancement, along with publishing, teaching, and service.

Most dossiers require candidates for promotion and tenure to describe their activities in four areas: research, teaching, clinical care and service to the community. Most exclude entrepreneurship or do not give credit for entrepreneurial activities and that is a mistake, since innovation and entrepreneurship has become the fifth mission of academic medical centers. The new academic triple threat demonstrates leadership, innovation and entrepreneurship. However, there is a disconnect between how academic leadership is defined and recruiting, developing and promoting faculty with an entrepreneurial mindset.

The intrapreneurial dossier might include the following in areas of entrepreneurial research, practice, education and service:

Materials from Oneself

  • Materials that show your entrepreneurial activity

  • Statement of entrepreneurial responsibilities (course titles and numbers, enrollments, required or elective, graduate or undergraduate)

  • A reflective statement describing personal entrepreneurial philosophy, strategies and objectives

  • Representative entrepreneurship course syllabi detailing content and objectives, methods, readings and requirements

  • Description of curricular and instructional innovations such as new course projects, materials, and class assignments and assessment of their effectiveness

  • Steps taken to evaluate and improve one’s entrepreneurial outputs and impacts.

Materials from Others

  • Materials from outside sources commenting on your development as an entrepreneur

  • Statements from colleagues who have either observed the entrepreneur in action

  • Student course or teaching evaluation data

  • Distinguished entrepreneurship awards or other recognition of entrepreneurial abilities.

  • Invitations to organize or present at a conferences, seminars or workshops

Products of Good Entrepreneurship

  • Materials that demonstrate your effectiveness as an entrepreneur or innovation and entrepreneurship opinion leader

  • Patents or evidence of other intellectual property

  • Licensing agreements

  • Spin out or startup metrics

  • Economic development metrics

  • Failures and how you applied lessons learned

Other Items that Might be Included

  • Testimonials

  • Community service and ecosytem activities and accomplishments

  • A statement by the dept. chair assessing the contribution of faculty entrepreneurship and innovation to the department

Creating an academic entrepreneurship portfolio documents accomplishments, satisfies policy mandates and is a excellent tool for pacing personal development and entrepreneurial progress. Fundamentally, it should explain and document the value you have created for your institution by your entrepreneurial efforts.

On many academic medical center campuses, the emphasis and metrics revolve around publications and research grant numbers. However, the difference between discovery and value creation has little to do with money. Instead, it has to do with leadership, culture, strategy, alignment, coordination and execution.

Barrier to participation by academic faculty, particularly clinical faculty, in the scholarship of entrepreneurship are:

  1. They do not get promotion and tenure credit for doing it

  2. The main message is they need to generate clinical revenue or find a way to buy out their clinical time

  3. The other faculty in the department get resentful and see non-clinical activity as dumping more work on them

  4. They are seen as trouble makers and bad rebels

  5. Lack of institutional support, infrastructure and resources

  6. Rigid policies and procedures that are anti-entrepreneurial

  7. “entrepreneurship” is a dirty word. The scholarship of innovation goes down easier.

  8. There is little or no alignment with department chairs

  9. Lack of strategic vision

  10. No one is leading innovators. Everyone seems to want to manage innovation

In addition, edupreneurs, i.e. those education intrapreneurs and entrepreneurs developing and deploying educational technologies, are critical if we are to change how we educate students and change an unsustainable education business model at all levels of education, but particularly for higher education and graduate and professional levels..

Maybe, some day, promotion and tenure committees will include your intrepreneurial accomplishments and actually give you some credit for achieving them.

Image credit: Pixabay

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The Dreaded Perfect Entrepreneur

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The Dreaded Perfect Entrepreneur

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

“Perfect is the enemy of good” is a quote usually attributed to Voltaire. He actually wrote that the “best is the enemy of the good” (il meglio è nemico del bene) and cited it as an old Italian proverb in 1770, but the phrase was translated into English as “perfect” and made its way into common parlance in that form.

Perfectionism is a problem. Here are some reasons why.

  1. It drives other people you interact with, who are not perfectionists, crazy
  2. We live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world where there is no definition of perfect. There are only solutions we test until we find out whether they work or not and then change if they don’t.
  3. Defining something as perfect is a value judgement, not an absolute, Perfection is a pipe dream. As Psychology Today explained, “‘perfect’ may exist as a concept,” but it’s not a reality. After all, its definition is entirely subjective. “Achieving perfection” is entirely a judgment call, depending on who’s trying to achieve it and who’s watching.
  4. It could be a symptom of a more serious psychiatric problem like obsessive-compulsive disorder which is a personality disorder characterized by excessive orderliness, perfectionism, attention to details, and a need for control in relating to others. It is one of many entrepreneurial syndromes that are characterized by entrepreneurial psychopathologies
  5. Meeting the expectations of others to be perfect is bad for your mental health. It will make you unhappy.
  6. There is reason why the Golden Mean has been around for several thousand years
  7. Innovation starts with mindset Being a perfectionist is not consistent with revising the “good” with evidence based business idea testing results
  8. There are reasons why we say doctors, actors, athletes, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other service providers practice their craft. You never get it perfect, even if someone gives you a 10, or a Facebook like or an Oscar for your performance. There is always room for improvement, but almost never perfection. Failure is part of the drill and inevitable. What’s on your failure resume? That’s why, when it comes tapping into a source of entrepreneurial internal motivation, you should make it personal, but don’t take it personally.
  9. The goal of making something perfect or doing something perfectly will get in the way of starting something, like:
  • Business Idea: Instead of waiting until you have a complete airtight business plan, simply start your business.
  • Software: Instead of ironing out every last bug, release your beta.
  • Products: Instead of adding every conceivable improvement and feature, ship your product. Release improvements later.
  • Health: Instead of finding the right gym, selecting the right outfit and picking the right workout, just go for a walk.
  • Website: Instead of finding the best server, CMS, theme, appearance and font, just get a landing page up and start selling.
  • Email: Instead of trying to create a well-written and grammatically impeccable email, just get the message out and click “send.”
  • Value proposition and business model canvas: Define your underlying assumptions and validate them with evidence. It’s called minimal viable product, not perfect product, for a reason.

10. Underbidding everyone by making something “good enough for government work” and then submitting endless add-ons leading to cost overruns is a tried and true profitable business model and there is little or no chance you will go to jail or get fired doing it.

If you want to know how to get to Carnegie Hall, it’s just easier to practice, practice, practice and focus on the journey, not the destination.

Image credit: Pixabay

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What you should learn from the Google Health failure

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What you should learn from the Google Health failure

GUEST POST from Arlen Meyers

There used to be a time when almost everyone was asking, “What would Google do with sickcare?”

Google health has pulled the plug on their sickcare venture. So did Haven. So did Microsoft. Maybe if the folks in the corner offices (remember those) or at their beach villas working from home talked to some doctors sooner, things might have been better. You remember who doctors are, right? They are those people in the white coats who actually take care of the patients you are trying to convince to use your products.

However, Google, by no means, is getting out of the sickcare business. Google says it is ramping up its investments in health-focused initiatives even as it dissolves its single unified health division. They are reorganizing and focusing on other products and services.

What can startups, scaleups and other grownups trying to tame the sickcare beast learn from these megafailures?

  1. Know when to pull the plug and learn from your mistakes

2. Don’t make the two most common reasons why your venture will fail. Adam Bosworth, a former manager of Google Health, who left in 2007 before the service was introduced, said the service could not overcome the obstacle of requiring people to laboriously put in their own data.

“In the end,” Mr. Bosworth said, “it was an experiment that did not have a compelling consumer proposition.” In other words, it was a solution looking for a problem.

  1. Don’t buy into the myth that patients are good consumers and are eager to take care of themselves. Even when the relatively few patients do give DIY medicine a shot, to use a COVIDism, here are the perils and pitfalls.
  2. Realize how hard it is to change doctor and patient behavior
  3. Sickcare is a personal services business, not a technology business that happens to take care of patients.
  4. Patients rarely, if ever, want to pay for anything that has to do with their health if someone else will. That’s why everyone is chasing B2B models, like self-insured employers, instead of B2C models
  5. You have to offer a compelling value proposition to multiple sickcare stakeholders simultaneously, not just the patient, to be successful
  6. Follow the money
  7. Automate your technology solution so end users have to do as little work as possible. I recently bought an at home blood pressure cuff from an online medical department store (no, not Amedzon) that measures my blood pressure, tells you when the cuff in not on my arm correctly, measures pulse rate too, sends the information to an app for storage where it calculates the average of the readings, and allows me to send the info to whomever I want with the push of a big button , all for under $60 (no delivery charge). It even synchs to Apple health. The bad news is that I don’t want to use Apple health. I’ve done enough already.
  8. Be a problem seeker, not a problem solver
  9. Don’t fall prey to the distraction of traction.
  10. Constantly evaluate your underlying business model hypotheses by repeatedly testing them

The bottom line is that all entrepreneurs and new product developers have one and only one job: figure out what the customer wants you to do and give it or sell it to them at a profit. It’s too bad you can’t just push one big button to make that happen. Well, at least they didn’t call it Google Sick.

Image Credit: Google

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Don’t Forget Branding as You Look for Business Growth

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Don't Forget Branding as You Look for Business Growth

People underestimate the importance of brand as they look to grow their business beyond their initial set of successful products and services. But, if you grow your business beyond your brand you’re doomed to fail.

Few of us have the luxury of being branding experts. Many of us can’t afford to engage an expensive branding agency to conduct a brand study.

Most small business owners are busy with the day-to-day operations of their business. The money they do have to spend on sales and marketing, they tend to invest in demand generation. This is a very logical choice as every business must maximize its revenue and minimize expenses to keep the lights on. But, if your business has been successful and has grown, you may find yourself in a slightly different situation.

Many companies that succeed and grow reach a point where that growth begins to taper off. It is often at this point where entrepreneurs begin to think about adding new products or services in new areas beyond their initial focus. If you choose to ignore the role of your brand at this point, you do so at your own peril.

A brand is more than the name of your business, your products, or your logo. If you have done a good job running your business, delivering your products and services, and the experiences around them, then your brand will stand for something – and might be worth something (brand equity). But what your brand stands for, your brand identity, is something that ultimately you do not control.

Yes, you can invest in an entrepreneurial mindset and brand positioning to shape your brand identity, but ultimately your customers (and non-customers) determine what your brand stands for. This fact is important as you look to expand your business into new areas you’re not currently in, to sell new products and services you don’t currently sell. The brand you have built up to this point will either be an asset or a liability as you look to grow into these new areas.

Your business exists because customers give it permission to exist. It can only grow into areas that prospective customers give it permission to grow into. If Taco Bell decides to enter the healthcare business, would you find them credible? Would you trust them to diagnose and treat you?

There must be an overlap between the directions you want to grow your business and the directions that prospective customers trust you to grow your business. If your new products and services don’t lie within the mental circle of trust that exists in the collective minds of your prospective customers, you will struggle.

Notice the focus on ‘prospective customers’ as I speak about your growth areas. This is because as you grow into new areas, your circle of trust may intersect with new people who are aware of your brand that are not currently your customers. Yes, your brand means something, even to those people who are NOT your customers.

You must mind your brand positioning and brand permissions not just with customers for your current products and services, but also with the most likely customers of the new products and services you’re hoping will provide the future growth of your business.

So, how do you find out what your brand stands for and what areas you can credibly extend into?

Unfortunately, there is no way to find this out without making an investment into interviewing people. Here are some options:

  1. Pay a branding or market research agency to do this for you
  2. Pay someone who works at one of these agencies to conduct these interviews for you as a side hustle through a gig worker exchange like fiverr
  3. Create a short & sharp list of 2-3 questions to ask a handful of customers that quickly get to the heart of what your brand stands for and whether they view you as credible in the new area you’re considering
  4. Use this same list of questions to quickly ask customers of businesses you view as potential competitors in the growth areas you’re looking to enter
  5. Pay some of your customers, that you have a good relationship with and will give you the time and honest feedback, to spend more time understanding why they do business with you now and what other kinds of products & services they would trust you to provide

Whether you lack money or courage, there are options above to overcome either limitation. If you lack both, then see my previous article on what I’ve learned from becoming an accidental entrepreneur.

For the rest of you, I hope that you will heed the warnings of this article, find the suggestions useful, incorporate them as you consider potential areas to grow your business into, and select those products and services to invest in where you have both credibility and ability to execute with excellence.

Keep innovating!

This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

Image credit: Pixabay


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How to Conduct Virtual Office Hours

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How to Conduct Virtual Office Hours

Guest Post from Arlen Meyers

We have all had experience with various forms of virtual interactions, be they meetings, seminars, presentations, informal get togethers or virtual networking events. One form of that experience is office hours be they as part of a formal class or a more informal meeting.

In the academic setting, office hours are a way for professor and student to communicate outside of the pressure and sometimes hurried nature of a class. To persuade students to come to office hours, professors can invite students genuinely, and also post their office hours in a way that students can easily sign up.

The purpose of office hours outside of the classroom is to have a conversation about topics of interest and get to know each other better. By their nature, they are typically unstructured and open and require some moderator knowledge, skills, attitudes and competencies to be successful. In many ways, they are like a news anchor moderating a panel of analysts who are discussing a recent newsworthy event. The main purpose is to explore opinions and insights around a specific topic and inform, educate and engage the audience and participants. What’s more, they are a great way to include people with international cognitive diversity.

Here’s what I’ve learned about how to conduct virtual office hours inside or outside of the classroom:

  • Schedule them at convenient times and inform participants about the schedule sufficiently ahead of time.

  • Get to know the participants. Ask them to introduce themselves and post contact information in the chat box and introduce themselves. Ask them to turn on their video when they speak.

  • Clearly define the broad goal or subject of the conversation, but allow the learning objectives to evolve based on what the participants want to discuss

  • Perfect your moderator communication skills

  • Challenge participants with probing questions about controversial topics and explore them with follow up questions

In most Zoom office hours, 10% of the participants will do 90% of the talking. Prompted cold calling is way to engage the silent 90%, To avoid embarrassing the 90%, use the chat to ask them if they would be willing to comment. If they agree, then call on them.

It is best to have a “director” on the Zoom call who can direct traffic, deal with technical issues and questions so the host can focus on the conversation.

  • Be careful not to hog the podium and confuse your moderator role with being a member of the audience. If you want to add your two cents, wait until others have had a chance to speak and then contribute. Keep your comments short and to the point.

  • Be careful to stay within the allotted time, politely interrupt those who get on a soap box to allow others to speak, and let the audience know when there is only 5 minutes left.

  • At the end, summarize or synthesize the conversation and offer other resources or solicit them from the audience to post in the chat.

  • Invite a guest expert or key opinion leader to “tee up” the topic with a 10 minute discussion.

  • Try to make the sessions as Powerpointless as possible.

In short, invite the audience to discuss the topic, have the conversation, and then tell the audience what they discussed and thank them for their ideas.

I hope to see you at our next office hours on the First Friday of every month at 8am Mountain Time.

Image credit: Pexels.com


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Building Cumulative Advantage

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Exclusive Mark Schaefer Interview Excerpt from CustomerThink.com

Mark W SchaeferCumulative Advantage as a concept builds unstoppable momentum for your ideas and your business — even when the odds seem stacked against you. The book shows how initial advantages, seams of opportunity, sonic booms, and the lift from mentors can impact your world in powerful and permanent ways. It’s designed to be a practical source of inspiration for the entrepreneur, business leader, and every person with a dream and an entrepreneurial mindset that’s ready to take flight. The Cumulative Advantage concept focuses on:

  • How the initial advantage that drives momentum comes from everyday ideas.
  • The inside secrets of creating vast awareness for your projects.
  • How to nurture powerful connections that lead to break-through opportunities.
  • Why momentum is driven by the speed, time, and space of a “seam.”
  • How the “certainty of business uncertainty” can be used to your advantage.

I had the opportunity recently to interview Mark Schaefer, a globally-acclaimed author, keynote speaker, and marketing consultant. He is a faculty member of Rutgers University and one of the top business bloggers and podcasters in the world. Mark is the executive director of Schaefer Marketing Solutions, Chief Executive Officer of B Squared Media and on the advisory board of several startups. He has been a contributor to Harvard Business Review and Entrepreneur magazine.

His latest book is Cumulative Advantage: How to Build Momentum for Your Ideas, Business and Life Against All Odds.

Below is the text of the interview:

1. Is success random?

Yes and no.

Momentum in life begins with some initial advantage. That is almost always random and unearned. It could be inherited wealth, a special, early educational opportunity, or being in the right place at the right time. Even being born into a free country and living in a stable household with two parents can be an advantage.

Frans Johansson wrote an entire book about this phenomenon called “The Click Moment.” I can point to a random conversation with my boss in 1992 that led to this book!

However, just having an idea or an advantage is not enough. You must pursue the idea and apply it to something changing in the world to create an opportunity. Randomness is likely to get the ball rolling, but hard work and smarts still make a difference when it comes to success.

2. Why is creating a cumulative advantage important?

There are many reasons to understand the patterns of momentum but for me, it’s the fact that it’s just so hard to stand out today. Even if you’re doing your best work, you can be buried because the level of competition and content out there is so great. How can a person or a business be heard? How can they be found?

For the past 10 years, most of my career has been devoted to this idea of becoming the signal instead of the noise. It’s never been harder for a business to be seen and heard and I think understanding how we can apply momentum to our lives is a big idea to help solve this problem.

3. Can anyone create cumulative advantage for their business or ideas?

This is going to sound weird, but honestly, no. This haunted me as I wrote the book. I realized that every business book and every self-help book is inherently elitist. The author assumes a person has the money to buy the book, the time to read it, and the resources to act on it.

But there is a big part of society that is being pulled under by Cumulative Disadvantage. It’s a cosmically complex topic that I address, in part, at the end of the book. I wanted to write a book that could help everyone, I don’t think anybody can, really.

But let’s put it this way — if you have the resources to buy the book and read it, then yes, you can probably build momentum!

4. What kinds of initial advantages might the average person have?

It can be anything really that leads to some momentum in later life. I already mentioned this idea about just living in a safe home as an advantage. Children adopted out of poverty had a substantial gain in IQ just from being in a safe environment.

Research has shown that early reading skills can lead to an advantage in education. Early athletic coaching can lead to longer and more profitable professional careers (just ask Tiger Woods or Serena Williams!). It can be a special ability, a personality trait, or even a stroke of luck along the way.

5. We are all surfing the crest of a wave that started long ago. Advantage builds on advantage. Why is curiosity so important?

I once had the opportunity to meet Walter Isaacson, the biographer of Steve Jobs, Leonardo DeVinci and Benjamin Franklin. I asked him what made a genius. He said endless curiosity and an ability to see patterns.

The world is filled with millions of ideas. An idea is worth nothing without the pursuit of curiosity, That is the beginning of momentum.

Click to read the rest of the interview on CustomerThink.com


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Five Lessons I Learned as an Accidental Entrepreneur

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Five Lessons I Learned as an Accidental Entrepreneur

You don’t have to start a business to learn from my journey.

I like think of myself as an accidental entrepreneur. I originally set out to make innovation insights accessible for the greater good. But, nearly 15 years after publishing my first article, I sold a site that had more than 8,000 articles from around 400 contributing authors.

Along the way I learned a great deal of things, some the easy way and some the hard way. Here are the five key lessons I learned from my 15-year journey as a webpreneur:

1. Before turning a passion into a business, nail the business model

My website, Innovation Excellence, started as a passion project that shared my own thoughts about innovation. The site didn’t begin with a business model and sort of evolved as my project grew. Even after bringing in partners to transform my project, everyone had a day job and didn’t have time to develop the most viable revenue streams. I began to experiment with advertising and sponsorships, but everything was difficult and quite manual. From this inability to invest, I learned that you shouldn’t start commercializing a passion project before nailing the business model. If you can’t, leave it as a small, manageable hobby.

2. Don’t give up too much equity too soon

I eventually brought on three partners, but ended up owning less than a third of my creation. I now see that I placed too little value on all of the work that I had done to that point.

Don’t give away half the commercial potential of your passion project to the first person offering you money to grow it. You always have the option of not growing it or growing it more slowly with more control. Make these choices carefully and err on the side of only giving up small amounts of equity for investment. I brought on some great people as partners, but the painful reality is that I gave up equity to fund a redesign that we ended up throwing away for another redesign that I did myself.

3. In any partnership, make sure ownership percentages match contributions

It takes work to run a website. If someone owns a third of your business, they should be doing a third of the day-to-day work involved. Even financial investors should be getting their hands dirty. Refuse purely financial investors unless their money funds the successful launching of a profitable business model.

4. Create as many win-wins as possible

My team was able to build Innovation Excellence into a saleable asset because it was a purpose-driven business focused on creating as many win-wins as possible. Every decision was measured against the mission to make innovation insights accessible, and we were focused on creating value for our global innovation community and value for our contributing authors. We turned down advertising dollars we didn’t think would be a win for our community and our authors.

If I start a new site, it will definitely follow this paradigm of creating value for as many stakeholders as possible. Win-win relationships create value over time, while win-lose relationships destroy value until it reaches zero.

5. When it’s time to sell, make sure the buyers share your vision

I’m proud of what I built with Innovation Excellence and grateful for my partners. Sadly, Innovation Excellence has disappeared. The buyers said they shared our vision, wanted to do no harm, respected what we had built and only wanted to make it better, but they completely replaced the brand nonetheless.

The buyer had every right to do this in pursuit of leveraging the assets they purchased, but it’s still painful as a founder to not be able to point people to the thing that you built. This should be a consideration when you sell something you’ve poured your heart and soul into.

Building and selling the Innovation Excellence was a wild ride, and I definitely learned a lot along the way. But you don’t have to build a company to gain insights. You can learn so much about how investors think by watching Shark Tank or reading articles. Talk to other entrepreneurs so you can learn without going through the hard part. Always look to grow and keep innovating, so you’re prepared with your entrepreneurial mindset when entrepreneurship comes knocking.

This article originally appeared on Entrepreneur.com

Image credit: Pixabay


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The Social Impact Investing Revolution

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Opportunities for Organizations

The Social Impact Investing Revolution

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the way organizations approach investing. A growing number of companies are realizing that they can make a positive impact on society while also generating financial returns. This movement, known as social impact investing, focuses on investing in projects, businesses, and initiatives that have a measurable positive social or environmental impact.

Case Study 1: Patagonia

One prime example of the social impact investing revolution is the case of Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company known for its commitment to sustainability and environmental conservation. In 2013, Patagonia launched its own venture capital fund, Tin Shed Ventures, with the goal of investing in startups that align with its values and mission. Through Tin Shed Ventures, Patagonia has invested in companies like Beyond Meat, a plant-based meat alternative company, and Bureo, a company that turns discarded fishing nets into skateboards and sunglasses. By leveraging its financial resources to support socially responsible businesses, Patagonia is not only driving positive change in the world but also generating financial returns for itself and its investors.

Case Study 2: Acumen

Another compelling case study is the impact investing efforts of Acumen, a non-profit global venture fund that invests in companies serving low-income communities in developing countries. Working in sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and energy, Acumen provides patient capital to entrepreneurs who are addressing pressing social and environmental issues in their communities. One notable success story is d.light, a company that provides affordable solar-powered lights to off-grid communities in Africa and Asia. By investing in companies like d.light, Acumen is not only increasing access to essential products and services for marginalized populations but also demonstrating the potential for financial sustainability and scalability in the impact investing space.

Conclusion

The rise of social impact investing presents a unique opportunity for organizations to align their financial interests with their social and environmental values. By investing in projects and companies that are creating positive change in the world, organizations can not only drive meaningful impact but also build long-term value for themselves and their stakeholders. As the social impact investing revolution continues to gain momentum, organizations have the chance to lead the charge in building a more sustainable and equitable future for all.

Bottom line: The Change Planning Toolkit™ is grounded in extensive research and proven methodologies, providing users with a reliable and evidence-based approach to change management. The toolkit offers a comprehensive set of tools and resources that guide users through each stage of the change planning process, enabling them to develop effective strategies and navigate potential obstacles with confidence.

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Effective Collaboration Strategies for Startups and Small Businesses

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Effective Collaboration Strategies for Startups and Small Businesses

GUEST POST from Chateau G Pato

Collaboration is a key component of success for startups and small businesses. By working together, teams can achieve greater results and overcome challenges more efficiently. However, collaboration is not always easy to achieve. It requires good communication, trust, and a shared vision. In this article, we will explore some effective collaboration strategies for startups and small businesses, as well as two case studies of successful collaborations.

1. Clear Communication: One of the most important aspects of effective collaboration is clear communication. Teams must be able to communicate their ideas, goals, and concerns openly and honestly. This can help avoid misunderstandings and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Regular team meetings, emails, and project management tools can all help facilitate clear communication within a team.

Case Study 1: Startup A is a small software development company that specializes in creating mobile apps. The team at Startup A struggled with communication, which led to missed deadlines and low morale among team members. To address this issue, the team implemented a daily stand-up meeting where everyone would share their progress, challenges, and goals for the day. This simple change in communication helped the team stay on track and build stronger relationships with each other.

2. Build Trust: Trust is another crucial element of effective collaboration. Team members must trust each other to do their work effectively and have each other’s backs when things get tough. Building trust can take time, but it is essential for a team to function well. Encouraging transparency, respecting each other’s opinions, and celebrating successes together can all help foster trust within a team.

Case Study 2: Small Business B is a marketing agency that works with various clients to create marketing campaigns. The team at Small Business B struggled with trust issues, as team members were often working in silos and not sharing their work with each other. To address this issue, the team implemented a project management tool where all team members could track their progress, share files, and communicate with each other. This improved transparency and collaboration within the team, leading to more successful campaigns and happier clients.

Conclusion: Effective collaboration is essential for startups and small businesses to succeed. By implementing clear communication strategies and building trust within a team, businesses can achieve greater results and overcome challenges more efficiently. The case studies of Startup A and Small Business B demonstrate the positive impact that effective collaboration can have on a team’s success. By prioritizing collaboration, startups and small businesses can create a strong foundation for growth and innovation.

Bottom line: Futurology is not fortune telling. Futurists use a scientific approach to create their deliverables, but a methodology and tools like those in FutureHacking™ can empower anyone to engage in futurology themselves.

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