Sena Hill
"In black and white, the term sheet stated: “Series A investor shall have right to appoint two Directors to the Board.” My initial knee-jerk reaction was not very accepting. What Board of Directors (BOD)? Who and why do we need outsiders dictating how we run our company? Ultimately, my partner and I held our noses and signed the deal. Fortunately, our BOD proved itself a valuable asset not only to our business, but also to us individually as entrepreneurs and executives." Kyle Zasky of Sena Hill discusses the mix of talents, skills, and experience that go into building a high-performance board.

Forbes
Serial entrepreneur and Silicon Valley resident Jenny Lefcourt discusses verbiage in the start-up world and voices her concerns that, in this funding environment, entrepreneurs who are not familiar with "VC speak" may struggle to find capital without engaged, motivated investors by their side. Lefcourt offers resources and tips that help entrepreneurs give VCs the information they are after.

New York Times
"Five years ago Google became focused on building the perfect team, guided by the belief that studying workers can transform productivity. In the last decade, Google's People Operations department has scrutinized everything from how people eat together, to traits the best managers share - all with the goal of determining why some teams flourish where others fail."

Medium
"Adeo Ressi of the Founder Institute digs into data spanning over 110 cities and six continents, highlighting the unique entrepreneurial strengths of each region, and encourages early-stage founders to look outside of Silicon Valley and build great companies right where they are."

First Round
"If your start-up is still building its early sales function or tallying its first deals, it must approach sales differently. According to The Sales Method creator Whitney Sales, early stage companies need to place more emphasis on their founding narrative, customize their customer stories and integrate both seamlessly into a structured prospect pitch."

Artivest

"Private equity has offered outperformance over public markets generally and in particular when initiated in weak markets and weak U.S. economic growth regimes. This dynamic is the stuff that diversification is made of."

Entrepreneur

Starting a new business is not an informal process, and should never be treated like a hobby between friends. Unfortunately, as a startup advisor and angel investor, I’ve seen too many ventures with great potential get destroyed or set back by legal and other shortcuts that should never have been allowed to happen. The path to true success does not allow for shortcuts.

DealBook

Starting Monday (5/16), new rules will permit anyone, not just the moneyed, to risk $2,000 a year or more investing in small companies in exchange for a stake in the business. Companies can raise up to $1 million a year this way.

Telegraph.co.uk
Stockholm is the second most prolific tech hub in the world on a per capita basis, behind Silicon Valley. How did that happen and where does it go from here?

A Crowded Space
Josh Breinlinger

We don’t often think about how to buy clothes in a retail store - but the expectations are learned over years of shopping.  We all know when we walk into almost any clothing store in the US – we can browse around, someone will probably greet us and ask if we need any help, we can try on any items we wish, we can pay via cash or credit card, we most likely can’t negotiate much, and we are probably able to return any unworn items without too much trouble as long as we save the receipt.  Why do we know all that? Because these are accepted policies that we’ve learned for clothing stores.  From the first time we went shopping with our parents - this is what we were taught.

The Reformed Broker

Sophisticated minds are often drawn to unsolvable puzzles. Organizations that pride themselves on intellectual capital can be easily tempted into overly complicated investments when a tantalizing riddle presents itself.