I find myself creating a lot of videos for partners overseas. This is one where I’m talking to investors in Shanghai. I’ve done videos for conferences, signing ceremonies, startup pitches, and even weddings.
Making a video can take a lot of time, so I’ve optimized the process. I do every video in a single take, so there’s no editing. I also try to use a background that looks professional.
I have the DIRTY DOZEN rule for startups. When it comes to businesses development only YES one out of 12 times. The other 11 opportunities are most likely a waste of your precious time and resources.
Great startups are often based on an idea that most people refuse to believe is possible at the time it appears. Take these examples:
Twitch: Millions of people will tune in to watch other people play video games online.
SpaceX: It’s possible for a founding team without significant space or rocket experience to build a company that makes manned space flights better than NASA or any other government on the planet.
The key to performing at your highest level is to not put yourself under pressure. Stress undermines your ability to make smart decisions and manage effectively. To reduce stress, don’t worry about the outcome. Just focus on what needs to be done and try to take pleasure in everything that happens along the way. That’s my secret.
What’s your valuation? The only way to know is to find out the valuation of similar startups. To do this, ask friendly VCs and advisors who have access to lots of deals and know the funding market. You can also reach out to other startup founders. And you can use an investor account to access valuations on Angel.co and similar sites.
Don’t try to prove your business model works. Instead try to prove it doesn’t work. Think of everything you can do to show your startup can never become a big business. If you succeed, celebrate and try something new. You just saved yourself a lot of time and money.
Whenever something doesn’t go right for me, which happens quite often, I ask myself, “Will I even remember this a year from now? And if I do, will I care?” The answer is almost always no. This allows me to let go of all the stress and return to feeling content.
I met with a dynamic startup founder yesterday. She has been working to build a 3-way marketplace. Two of the parties love her product, but the third is reluctant to engage.
She has been struggling for a year and a half to get the third party to participate on the platform, but it’s been difficult. I told her to stop trying so hard. If one of the parties in your market place doesn’t love what you’re offering, you’ll never convince them otherwise.
If you’re an early stage startup with 5 revenue streams, I probably won’t invest because what it tells me is that none of your revenue streams is strong enough to build a billion-dollar business. Most great startups begin with one primary revenue stream that is powerful enough to take the company to IPO. Think of Facebook with advertising or Airbnb with rentals or Amazon with online shopping. They all have one dominant revenue stream. If you need multiple revenue streams to succeed, your business is probably broken.
Your product needs to offer a fundamentally different core value to the customer than anything else on the market. Otherwise you’re just following–not leading. Leaders dominate. Followers fade away.
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