This is the second video exploring a process I developed for helping you find the optimum direction and strategy for your business. In part 1, you captured a wide range of possible concepts, then systematically narrowed them down to just the best few. If you have not already read it, I suggest you go back to part 1 before reading this. https://ftb.bz/35VIn this part, you will dig deeper into your best business ideas to crown an eventual winner.You can also read this as a blog. Part one at https://ftb.bz/35B or this part at https://ftb.bz/36BDigging deeper on your top options:You narrowed your options down to just a few top options using a quick process based mainly on your experience and intuition. Now you can spend some time exploring only the best strategies in more detail. The fundamental question is, can you win with any of these business directions?Read as a blog: https://ftb.bz/36BWatch as a video: https://ftb.bz/36V

If you need to choose a problem to solve, identify their customers, and settle on the solution for your startup to bring to market, this video is for you.This tool can also be useful for thinking about your pivot options if your current direction is failing.You can read this as a blog at https://ftb.bz/35BThis video explains the first part of the process where you develop a large number of possible business directions, then systematically narrow it down to a few best candidates. In part 2, you will learn how to drill down and analyze those finalists to pick the one business model most likely to succeed.Download the worksheet for this process here: https://ftb.bz/35-business-plan-worksheetAs you work through this process, you will uncover your optimum business direction.For each potential path, you will consider the following criteria:· What is the need, pain, or unfulfilled desire?· Who needs that, and how would they use it?· How many people fit that description, and how urgent is their need?· Your proposed solution· Why that solution is better than competitors, alternatives, or workaroundsYou should be able to do this initial exercise in a day. After that, you will need to do some more research and conduct tests to see if your guesses and assumptions are right. Using this worksheet is a navel-gazing activity, but you can’t navel-gaze all the way to your final destination.One thing I did not include in the worksheet is your passion. Because startups are all-consuming, make sure whatever direction you consider is something you would love to spend all your time doing for a long time. Don’t write down an option if you are not willing to do that thing at maximum intensity for years.Digging deeper on your top optionsPart 2 of this video covers how to look more closely at your top contenders and pick the one strategy you want to pursue for your business.A work in progressI am using this tool with some of my portfolio companies, but it is not as mature as most of my other advice and methodologies. If you try it, please give me feedback about what worked and what you think needs to be adjusted. Thanks!

I recently had a chance to talk with Iris Fujiura, Chapter Lead of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, a national network of angel investment groups focused on woman-run startups. Prior to that, she was an engineer, and eventually an executive, working on rockets and launch systems.Video version: https://ftb.bz/34VBlog version: https://ftb.bz/34BShe provided great insight into angel investor priorities, and what makes for a successful funding pitch. We also discussed the particular challenges facing female entrepreneurs.Iris recommended the Female Founders Alliance https://femalefounders.org/ as a particularly useful resource.

I answer more questions and provide more coaching about investor pitches than anything else. Once you decide that you need investment to grow your company, your task as a founder is to convince investors to give it to you. The first step in that process is a pitch, and getting it right is essential to the future of your business. In this blog, I will share with you my five-step process for building a killer pitch.Read the blog: https://ftb.bz/33B Watch the video: https://ftb.bz/33VThese steps are a process, not a recipe. I don’t have template slides where you just fill in the blanks because we are not playing Mad Libs. Your pitch needs to be unique and crafted to highlight your company’s strengths and relative advantages.As you create your deck consider its purpose and your objective. It exists to get you the next meeting, nothing more. If you generate enough interest and excitement to move forward with due diligence, you have succeeded.The five steps are:· Gather – capture all the information investors might want to learn· Focus – Zero in on the key elements· Organize – Layout the flow of your presentation· Build – Create the actual slides· Polish – Refine your presentation until it singsGatherStart by pulling together all the information that your deck will probably require.Jot down your answer to each of the following questions. Some may require time, research, and analysis to answer well. Here is a link to a worksheet with all five steps and these questions: https://ftb.bz/pitchdeck-worksheet1. What is the business?a. What problem are you solving?b. How are you solving it?2. How will you growa. Go to market plan3. What is special about it?a. Any secret sauce, unfair advantage, etc.4. Why is this defensible?a. Moat, defensible IP, network effects, etc.5. Who is the customer?a. Why do they need the problem solved?6. Competitiona. Why much better?b. Why not just use an existing solution?7. Business modela. How do you make money?b. If not now, eventually.c. Key economics8. Financial projections & roadmapa. Can you survive?b. When do you need more investment?9. Why now?a. Market trends?b. New technologies?c. New opportunities?d. New problems?10. Why this team?a. If there are gaps, own it and answer how you will fill them.11. Current statusa. What have you accomplished so far?b. What exists, and at what level of maturity?c. Customers and traction?12. What is the deal?a. Amountb. Structure – equity, note, SAFE, etc.c. Valuation if setd. Terms – discount, interest, preference, etc.If you don’t have satisfying answers to these questions, you might not be ready to pitch. It would be better to spend time researching, testing, and refining the business rather than pushing forward with developing your deck. With most investors, you only get one bite at the apple. Don’t waste it by going in half-assed.FocusNow that you have all the information that might go into your deck, you need to bring some focus to your presentation. Try to highlight what your audience needs to hear, not what you like to talk about. I wrote a blog on the nine things angels want to see in your pitch: https://ftb.bz/31BTry to keep your explanations at a high level. If the audience wants to know more, they can ask questions or dig deeper in due diligence. Don’t get into the technical details of your product unless it is absolutely required. On the other hand, DO state the obvious. Things about your business or market that are obvious to you may not be to most investors.Thinking of your business as a whole, and referencing the list you made in step 1, what are the best things about your startup? Do you have any business superpowers? What are your particular strengths or aspects that make you stand out? Make a note of that to ensure you highlight it during the pitch.Then, look for a few other things about your company that the audience must understand and remember. Limit yourself to just a few. After a few days, most people only retain 3-5 items from a presentation. Choose yours carefully and make them count.Look for and remove details or trivia that does not need to be in the deck. If the investor does not need to know something to understand your business at a 60,000 ft level, it should go. Every slide, every word, every idea, needs to fight for existence in your pitch. Be brutal in your focus.OrganizeNow you need to pull all those ideas into a coherent structure. A pitch is just a special kind of presentation. For a deeper dive into presentations and presenting in general, check out my hour-long presentation training video: https://ftb.bz/P2VYou won’t be able to get away with creating just one deck. Different contexts require different decks. One size will not fit all. You will frequently need to adjust your deck to fill the amount of time they give you. You should never need to rush or stall to hit your allotted time.You will also need to customize your deck for each audience. If you are addressing a random group of angel investors, you will need to explain some things that are blindingly obvious to you.However, if it is a group of industry experts, they might be insulted by that kind of remedial level information but want to see more details of your solution.Finally, and I have ranted about this in a past blog, create different decks for presenting in-person vs. emailing to be read alone.I want to make a radical suggestion; resist the urge to start using any kind of presentation software at this point. I use 3X5 cards, mind maps, or sticky notes to organize my presentations.The key is making it as easy as possible to reorganize your deck. You need to be able to see everything all at once and shuffle it around with zero effort. For simplicity, I will just talk about my process with cards.Another advantage of jotting just a couple of words on each card is that you can cultivate a Buddhist detachment towards them. You spent no time making them, so it is easy to rip them up and replace or change them. Keep the process as frictionless as possible.Capture on the cards all the information you decided to keep in the presentation and lay them out in what seems like a reasonable order. Mark the headline and key point cards so you can see if they are getting the emphasis you want.The first and last things an audience hears will be the most memorable and carry the greatest impact. If you can, put your headline in one or both of those places. I did a blog on nailing the opening of your pitch here: https://ftb.bz/17BThink about your pitch as a story. Narrative is far more memorable than data, particularly if you invest it with emotion. Is there a way of organizing your presentation so that it tells a story about you or your customers? It could be a story about how you came to found the company or a story about a real or imagined customer. One of my portfolio companies created a children’s picture book to illustrate their product and found it to be incredibly effective in all kinds of contexts. Try to connect all the content in your pitch with a single thread running throughout the presentation.Next, consider the transitions between each concept. Walk through the cards in order and think about what you will say as you advance through them. Does each one follow logically from the one before? Do they build a narrative? Do you make any statements or claims before showing the supporting information or context to understand them? You may need to change the order, add, or remove cards to make things flow smoothlyNow, start practicing the pitch. Do it right from the cards while everything is still easy to change. Present or read (depending on whether it is a delivered or emailed deck) all the way through, making notes and changes as you go. Continue to feel for those awkward transition points. Look for places where the pace drags. Notice if you are spending too much time on less important things. Check whether the key points stand out and are positioned for maximum impact.Fix the problems you found, then do it again and again until it feels good.BuildIn many ways, this is the easy part. You know all the slides that will be in the deck, why they are there, and what you will say about them. Now, go create those slides. I usually start by making a blank slide with the tiny bit of text that was on each card.From there, I start zeroing in on the exact content for the slide, of which there should not be much. Slides must be clean and uncluttered, even for read-alone decks. For delivered presentations, the audience must be able to read it from across the room in a couple of seconds. When someone is reading a slide, they are not hearing what you are saying. Your spoken words carry much more weight than the text on the slide.In a presentation, slides only exist to support and enhance your words. They need not, and should not, stand alone. Steve Jobs was a master of this. When he introduced the new MacBook Air, he talked about how small it was, not with numbers but by pulling it out of a mailing envelope.And the computer on an envelope was all you saw on the screen behind him. Focusing on and reinforcing that one concept made it memorable. Every article written on the launch used that example.If you have enough artistic talent to make the deck look fantastic, great, get to work!If not, mockup the slides, create rough diagrams, and find appropriate graphics or images. Then hand it off to a designer who can make it look professional. With all the content planned out and prepared, it should not cost much to get it looking fabulous.PolishNow is the time to start polishing your pitch to a fine edge. If you will be delivering the pitch verbally, whether in person, video conference, or recording, make sure you know the content inside and out. Don’t memorize the words you will say, but rather the message you want to deliver. Internalize the point and purpose of every slide. A memorized presentation often feel awkward, wooden, and over-rehearsed. The only exception is the opening, which can lead to stumbles, so knowing the first few sentences word for word can help. Practice until you can consistently deliver the pitch, in your improvised words, within the time limit.Next, get feedback from as many people as you can. Ideally, use people who are not familiar with your company, so they better reflect the mental state of your real audience. Find people who are willing to hurt your feelings. You want them to tell you, in great detail, why your baby is ugly. Embrace the power of frank feedback. For read-alone decks, let them read it without you in the room. For presentation, present just like you would in the real meeting.Afterward, don’t just ask what they thought about your pitch, pose specific questions.· Where did they get confused?· Where did they lose interest?· Did the pitch make them excited about the business opportunity?· For a presentation, how was your delivery in terms of energy, eye contact, body language, and vocal tone, and filler words?· Did the visuals and layout of the slides help with their understanding?· Ask them to explain your business back to you. Did they understand the key points you wanted them to?· Watch your audiences for clues as to where they are more interested, dubious, or checked out.Lather – Rinse – Repeat. Keep improving the deck and showing it to new audiences. This process never stops. No pitch is perfect, you can always find ways to improve it, and your company will be continually evolving, requiring you to adapt your content.PitchPitching is not your core business, so it seems unfair that your success or failure could depend on something so unrelated.But it does.Your pitch needs to be amazing because the competition is intense. I see lots of good companies fail to raise funds because of weak presentations. As hard and wasteful as it can sometimes seem, take the time and invest the effort to make yours sing. You may even find that this process helps clarify your thinking about the business.If you use this process to build or revise your deck, I would love to take a look. As an incentive, I will give the first ten submissions detailed feedback over a coaching call. Warning, I am one of those people willing to tell you that your baby is ugly, sometimes in gory detail.

Recently, I talked to my friend Che Voigt, co-founder and CEO of AltWork and chair of the North Bay Angels.We discussed their innovative workstation and how COVID is driving a work from home trend that is driving unprecedented growth in their sales. He also described their experiences of working with a supply chain based in China during this crisis.The launch of their first product immediately went viral, and Che theorized about how their choices impacted that.Now, they are about to launch a new version of the workstation, so this interview is under embargo until the official announcement. We discussed how they are positioning the new product to achieve similar success.One of the unknowns in any launch is the news environment at the time.Launching during COVID would have been complicated enough, but we have had to push back the date of this episode because they delayed the launch in light of the current civil unrest.At the last moment before the release of this episode Altwork chose to do a soft launch of the new product out of respect to the protests and national discussions around BLM. A lesson that you can never control all the variables.

Watch the Video https://ftb.bz/31VRead the Blog https://ftb.bz/31BPart of the startup fundraising process is pitching angel investors. But when you are putting together a pitch deck, it would be great to know what that audience wants to see. Rather than simply use my list, I reached out to a bunch of other angel investors to learn what they wanted. All of us wanted to see similar things.From that, I developed this list of nine things angels want to know before committing to a follow-up meeting or starting due diligence.Full disclosure: this is what we say we want, but might not reflect how we actually make decisions. Emotions and other subjective factors often weigh heavily in our considerations even though we like to think we are making purely logical choices.#1 Problem or NeedWe want to understand who your customer is and the problem or need your company addresses for them. Frame this as what the customer wants, vs. the idea you have. The problem is all about your customer’s world. Tell us about how much pain the lack of your solution is causing to this marketplace, or how eagerly they desire what you offer. If we are not familiar with this market, it helps if you can show that other thought leaders recognize the magnitude of the need.#2 Your SolutionHaving laid out your customer’s problem, what are you going to do about it?Describe your solution quickly and clearly. Addresses how your offering solves the problem you described.Don’t get bogged down in details. If you were pitching me the telegraph, I would want to know what it can do, but would I care much less about how it does it. Implementation and technology details are almost always better left for due diligence. We need to have a general understanding of what your thing is, but not at the level of detail you would use if you were selling it to us.At the end of this, I should be able to picture your customers using your solution to solve their problems.#3 Competitive landscapeThere is always some kind of competition out there. Somehow, your potential customers are making do without your product right now. Their alternative might not be another startup, but just some widely adopted improvised solution. I often see companies where that alternative is just spreadsheets, which work remarkably well for many things. Convince us that your offering will win in the market.A lot of competitor comparisons are just a list of features. Unless we are your target customer, we may not know if those are exciting features or not.Suppose you founded Spaceman Spiff’s Rockets. You might use this chart to show why you are better than Space X or NASA. The problem is, I am not in the market for rockets, so I have no idea if your customers will value those differences. Do they care that Spiff’s rocket has a “freem drive”, whatever that is? Is vertical landing a significant differentiator? Who needs a mertilizer beam, and will they pay more for it?In contrast, I can see why exploring the galaxy rather than just the near-earth orbits would be a big deal. I can imagine that vaporizing enemies might be desirable to your launch market of supervillains.Frame your comparisons in terms of why they are better for the customer, not in terms of features. It does not matter that you care about or are proud of them if they don’t motivate your customers.Show us how your solution is enough better than the incumbent solutions that users will switch. Switching is usually painful, so that is a high hurdle.#4 DefensibilityYour solution might be better than the competition right now, but how do you stay ahead once they see how awesome your product is and start copying it? Let us know about any barriers to entry that will prevent them from competing? Can you create a moat to protect your business from business marauders?For example, are there network effects that allow a first mover to grab enough of the market to block later entrants? Do you have some unfair advantage that can’t easily copy?Does the company have enforceable intellectual property?Strong intellectual property is much more than just having a patent; it needs to be one that competitors can’t easily circumvent and that you could plausibly enforce against likely infringers. Don’t lean on patents as your primary defense unless you know that they will stand up to scrutiny during due diligence. Otherwise, it makes you look naïve.#5 TeamMost angels put a lot of weight on the quality of the team. A common saying among startup investors is “bet on the jockey, not the horse.” Unfortunately, team slides are often the worst in a deck. They are just a list of names and photos, sometimes with corresponding companies or roles.This slide is your chance to sell us on your team. Why is this the group of people that will win, even if you have to pivot a few times first? If you have prior experience in your space, it means that you have intimate knowledge of the needs and complexities of the industry. That is important, tell us about it. Also, highlight any team members that have a track record of success in leadership positions in other startups.Highlight all your team’s outstanding skills: technical, human, leadership, and communications.Some things about the team can be an explicit part of your pitch, but others will only come out in interactions and conversations. We are observing and judging your listening skills, coachability, and humility as we interact. Coachability matters a lot to most of us because we want to stay involved in helping you.Through your presentation style, angels want to see that you exhibit focus, high energy, and enthusiasm for your company while being flexible and adaptable in the face of challenges.In your deck, your presentation style, and all other interaction, make sure these qualities shine through.#6 Business PlanWe need to see a business plan, but we don’t want a formal MBA style written plan. We need to understand your strategy and tactics for your business to succeed.How are you going to make money? Maybe not right away but eventually.How are you going to get into the market? What is your marketing and channel strategy? Avoid just a list of the obvious: social media, keyword ads, word of mouth, pr, etc. Everyone says that. Demonstrate that you have thought about this, have some insight, and maybe have done some tests already. We are looking for any glaring holes or unwarranted assumptions in your plans that would make us say “no.”Show that the opportunity is big enough for angel and VC investment? In a past blog, I talked about why we need the possibility of at least 20x returns.When you talk about the size of the market, I want to know about the size of your portion of the market, not the whole thing. If you sell seatbelts, don’t quote me the size of the entire auto industry.We need to see some financial projections. I also did a blog on how to create appropriate forecasts for early-stage startups. They need to show us your cash requirements and projected future funding rounds. We worry about dilution in later funding rounds if you need a lot more money, and possibly running out of money if those rounds are late. If you say nothing, we will assume the worst.Finally, do you have a grand strategy for the long term? Where is the company going in several years once you own the initial market?#7 ProgressWhat have you achieved so far? Do you have a concept, prototype, MVP, or full product? We need to know what actually exists right now before this funding.Can you demonstrate customer traction and interest? Do you have sales, paid or un-paid pilots, testimonials, or surveys? Your valuation depends on the maturity of the company and the tangible and intangible assets you have created.From that starting point, tell us the immediate next steps?#8 The DealYou are pitching us because you are looking for investment in your company. Don’t be coy about it. You must be very clear and concise in describing the deal on the table, or honest about the lack of current terms. We need to know:· How much are you raising in this round?· What is it that are we buying? Preferred stock, Note, SAFE?· At what valuation or conversion cap?· What will this cash be used for?We want to know how much you have raised in previous rounds, and what you have committed on this one.If you have any well-respected lead or key investors, be sure to mention it? Investors can be sheep and like to follow a trusted leader.#9 Exit StrategyFinally, we need to understand how we will make money on this investment. Typically we get paid when your company is acquired (most often) or goes public (rarely). Therefore we want to know if this an active space for acquisitions. Do you already know of companies that are likely to be interested in you? If so, do you already have strategic relationships with any of them? What are common multiples for acquisitions in the space for companies like yours?If we get paid in some other way, make that crystal clear. I see this most often in real estate investments where the company makes regular payments starting. Otherwise, non-standard payouts are usually a turn-off. Angel investments are risky enough without introducing unnecessary uncertainty and doubt.On to due diligenceWhile it is always possible that any individual investors will have some hot button issue not on this list, if your pitch delivers on all of these nine areas, you have a strong chance of getting that next meeting and potentially getting funding.

Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Alice (helloalice.com), recently joined me to talk about her entrepreneurial journey and to share some insights with other founders. Alice is a free multi-channel platform powered by AI technology that guides business owners by providing access to funding, networks, and services.You can also watch this as a video: https://ftb.bz/30VBefore that, she was the entrepreneur in residence at Dell Technologies, served in the Peace Corps, and much more.We talked about how she became an entrepreneur and how her background contributes to her capabilities as a co-founder.We discussed why women and minorities are at a massive disadvantage as entrepreneurs, and the particular challenges of being a founder/parent.Finally, she shared several tips that will be of great help to any small business owner, particularly during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Over the last couple of months, I have been incredibly busy with Feel the Boot and other projects. I have been setting up schedules, writing blogs, recording interviews, posting content, advising companies, and the like. All of the associated deadlines have been stacking up, making me feel stressed while not making much progress on my main strategic goals.Then suddenly, I realized that I had been caught by the busyness trap … again!You can get this as a video.Or read the blog on our website here.The busyness trap is when you get caught in a pattern of doing a lot but accomplishing little. In this installment, I look at: why entrepreneurs are so easily caught in the trap, what it means for your startup, what gets lost when you are in the trap, and some approaches to escaping from it.Why are entrepreneurs so vulnerable to this trap?For many, being busy has become a status symbol. When people ask, “how are you?” we say “busy” or even “it’s been crazy.” We brag about long hours, but rarely in the context of any strategic objectives.Another cause is guilt. I often feel guilty when I am not busy. I will do meaningless little things at my computer rather than walk away. Sometimes I find myself doing completely wasteful activities rather than leave the office. I find myself thinking that there might be a link to a useful article on Twitter if I just scroll down a few more pages.Stress can often lead to busyness. When you know there is a lot to do, you may focus on doing a lot of things. With no time to look up, you laser in on knocking off that next task, answering that next email, scheduling that next post, or whatever other tasks are on your to-do list, without pausing to think whether those are the most important things to be doing.For entrepreneurs, busyness is self-imposed. No external boss breaths down your neck, making sure you are filling every moment with productive activity. Although we might have learned the habit from prior employment, we have the power to change that pattern now.What does busyness mean for your startup?First, there can be diminishing returns from working longer and harder. Value produced does not scale linearly with hours spent on the job. Productivity drops off sharply after too long on the job.When I was in graduate school, pursuing a Ph.D. in Astrophysics, I had to take a two-day test covering all aspects of undergraduate and graduate-level physics. For months my life revolved around studying for that test, cramming my head with every possible detail, equation, and technique. I wallpapered my living room in equations big enough to read from the other side of the room to help me have all the information instantly available at any time.I quickly discovered that I was only good for about three hours per day of focused high-intensity mental effort. Working longer than that accomplished nothing more and left me fatigued. Eventually, I had to give myself permission to structure my days around that reality and do only less brain intensive things outside of those 3 hours.I need to remind myself that the opposite of busyness is not laziness. It is a purposeful choice about what to do and when.What gets lost when you get busy?A lot of important things can get dropped or missed as we get busier. As an example, look at the essential activities that I have been allowing to fall to the wayside.I don’t read nearly as much as I would like. Reading is fuel for my idea engine. When I am going through a good non-fiction book, I regularly stop to take notes on new ideas and projects.Busyness prevents me from making time to talk to people outside of structured meetings. Open-ended conversations bring forth all kinds of fantastic concepts and cement relationships that will be valuable later on.I find it hard to stop and “sharpen my saw” while in the middle of work chaos. It feels like wasted time, even though these meta-activities can lead to substantial overall productivity boosts. Intellectually, I know that improving skills, workflows, and organization structures can all pay big dividends. Yet I stay caught in the demands of the moment.I feel like I am missing out on opportunities. Being heads down in the weeds can mean that I don’t take time to notice openings or to take advantage of changing situations.I remember a lesson about relaxation from my Kung-Fu instructor. Tension makes your body slow, while a relaxed body is fast.The same is true of a relaxed mind that can perceive opportunities for action that would miss when locked into a narrow channel. When you are stressed, opportunity looks like one more thing to do, so you avoid it.The biggest thing I miss out on is pure thinking time without a specific plan, so my mind can wander over possibilities. I keep a waterproof pad of paper in my shower because of all the thoughts that pop up while engaging in that mindless activity. Long walks, or just sitting staring into a fire, can often be the most effective use of my time, if only I permit myself to do it.General Eisenhower had an excellent framework for thinking about tasks and making sure that important ones did not get lost in the shuffle. He looked at every activity along two axes.Whether it was it important and whether it was urgent.If something is urgent and important, like putting out a grease fire in your kitchen, then there is no question or hesitation. Of course, you do that immediately.The busyness trap arises from the issues that are urgent but not particularly important. They make a lot of noise and attract attention, but don’t change your world. These are the tasks that often fill our time driving out the others. They need to be kept in check.We need to make room for the things that are important but aren’t urgent. Reading, thinking, talking, planning, and working on long duration projects all fall into this category. If they are going to happen, we need to carve out substantial time for these kinds of important but not urgent activities.Finally, there are those tasks that are neither urgent nor important. You don’t need to do those at all.How do you escape the busyness trap?Obviously, I haven’t found the magic solution to avoiding the busyness trap. It is a tricky thing because there is no one moment when you feel its jaws grab you; it comes on over time.For me, awareness of this issue is the first step. Knowing that the trap is a real thing, helps me look for signs that it is happening again.When you realize that you are spending your time on less important things while strategic initiatives are being ignored, stop and take a breath. Force yourself to take some time to look for ways to eliminate the clutter. I find that an audit of where my time actually goes helps me see where my priorities are out of alignment with my daily practices.As soon as you realize you are in the trap, spend some time listing the projects and activities that are important to you and make sure you have a process to keep them front and center on your schedule.Finally, permit yourself to just ponder. Creativity requires that kind of open, unstructured time.If you are in the midst of the trap, this should help you find your way out, if only for a while.

Any time you are talking to an investor, whether in a pitch deck or during due diligence, they expect you to show financial projections. Many founders run into trouble with this when the company is mostly or entirely pre-revenue. You might wonder what you can show with no track-record. Even so, financial projections are still essential both to the investor and to your strategy.Right off the bat, let's be honest. Angels know that your numbers are going to be wrong. That is the only thing they can be sure of.Angel investors are an idiosyncratic bunch; we all have different things we are looking for in a business and in financial projections. I want to see the founder tell a not impossible story about their company’s success. We all know that it is likely that you will need to pivot at some point, but you still need to show that your initial plan could work and produce substantial returns on my investment. Of course, that means you will have a chart showing hockey-stick growth. But don't just make up the numbers, show that they are plausible, or better yet likely.Read the blog version: https://ftb.bz/startup-financialsListen to the podcast: https://ftb.bz/podcastLinks from the episode:Embrace the Pivot- https://youtu.be/OEDmau9ljoUWhy do Angels Demand 20X returns - https://youtu.be/J7tnKZW7TXgThe Three Kinds of Virality - https://youtu.be/jyxTtZ6Gl0wTest Driving Your Business - https://youtu.be/MLJQMRIIm7Q

Video: https://ftb.bz/27V Blog: https://ftb.bz/27B Episode on testing assumptions: https://ftb.bz/21B-testing-assumptionsStarting a business with nothingA viewer recently asked me how he could launch a startup when he does not have any significant savings or wealthy connections. With just an idea, but no source of capital, he is going to have to do this the hard way because no outside investor will ever fund a first-time entrepreneur with only an idea. If an entrepreneur has a significant track record of successful exits, then they might be able to get investment in their idea, but at that point, they would also have friends and family with money.If you are in this position, your first step is research and lots of it. You need to know everything about your business and market. Fortunately, it takes little or no money to conduct this kind of research and experimentation. For a company starting with no capital, avoiding waste and mistakes is even more critical. I wrote an entire episode on testing assumptions.Can you build it yourself?Engineers found most tech startups because they can build the initial prototypes themselves. They use their time, rather than cash to launch the company, avoiding the whole problem of fundraising on an idea.If you are launching a software-based business, can you code it yourself? You don't need to be the best programmer, just good enough to create a proof of concept or prototype that can demonstrate and validate the company's premise. I wrote much of the early code for Anonymizer and a few other products. I am not a professional developer, and that software was spaghetti code of the worst kind. But it got us initial customers and demonstrated that the idea was valuable or, in some cases, not. The same concept applies equally to hardware and service-based businesses if you have the needed skills.With just enough functionality to demonstrate your capability, and to validate customer demand and engagement with the solution, you are ready to bring your company to outside investors.If you can't build it yourselfBut what if you are an expert in business, sales, or marketing but have none of the skills required to create the solution? After you have finished all of the research and testing you can do without a product in hand, you must start evangelizing your startup to more technical entrepreneurs.Many technically skilled individuals want to be entrepreneurs but don't have an idea for their own business. Get them excited about your idea and bring them onboard. It may take a long time to find the person who both has the skills you need, and fully appreciates and shares your vision.This person will be your co-founder. They can spend their time creating the prototype and MVP while you focus on networking, pre-marketing, creating visibility, and yet more research. Mutually respectful technical and non-technical founding teams are incredibly powerful and attractive to investors. Your new technical co-founder will expect, and deserves, a substantial stake in the company. You literally could not do this without them, and they are not getting paid any salary.Spend time not moneyPeople often say that we should always spend money to save time. In this no-money situation, the opposite advice applies. In an unfunded startup, you are using time, which you have, to avoid spending money, which you don't. Beyond creating your prototype / MVP and doing research & testing, many of the other activities you should pursue depend on whether you are creating a consumer-focused offering or a B2B company.Consumer· Leverage free tools and online communities to get beta testers and early users. ProductHunt.com is a good example.· Engage in social media to build a following and create excitement about what is coming.· Participate in relevant online communities that will provide visibility, future users, advisors, partners, and investors.· Leverage PR if your solution is newsworthy. A company I help gets amazing PR because he is a veteran who makes a device addressing PTSD.· Use inexpensive online ads to test your messaging and the market need. You can learn a lot from just $100.B2B· Network with everyone in the space, in person, on LinkedIn, in forums, etc.· Ask for referrals and introductions to potential partners and customers.· Join associations and groups (that are cheap or free)· Attend industry events (that are cheap or free)· Spend time meeting and talking with potential customers, not to sell them but to learn from them.For everyone· Attend and present at pitch contests to hone your message, meet other entrepreneurs, and connect to advisors & investors.· Join quality accelerators or incubators for networking, logistical support, discounts, and sometimes funding.· Find potential advisors and sell them on the exciting prospects for your business. They can help with strategy, tactics, and growth. They should also make introductions and generally provide an experienced outside perspective.A long hard roadBecause you won't have any cash to spend, building your company to the point where angel investors are interested may take a long time. The process is challenging but not impossible. By the time you are ready for fundraising, you may be so good at bootstrapping that you find you don't need to bring in investors after all.