It's a sunny Saturday afternoon in Seattle, and I'm going through my Gmail account reading the mail from readers. I'm trying – unsuccessfully – not to respond to repeated emails from someone who is really pissed at me about a recent blog post. And in my (totally failed) attempt to not respond, I am reminded of something that I say to myself all the time, "this is not a popularity contest."

Having a startup is a lot like being in high school. As a gangly and earnest company that has not yet come of age, you just want people to like you. You want investors to like you, you want your market to like you, you want people to like you enough that they'll come work for you for little money and no job security whatsoever. People need to like you.

continue reading

Several weeks ago, Bill Bryant (a self-appointed Godfather of Seattle's startup community) sent out a, "inspirational" quote on the Seattle Tech Startup list. The subject line was "why we need more imagination, less knowledge."

Someone else on the list responded with a question that went something like, "why do these lists always turn in to group therapy?" Or something like that. The answer to that question is easy – because we're all insane.

continue reading

An IPO (Initial Public Offering) is oft thought of as the goal of any startup. (After all, we all have an "exit" slide in our pitch deck, and they all either say "IPO" or "acquisition.") But what if you do an IPO by accident? Call me crazy, but I think that's what's happening over at TheFunded.com.

continue reading

It is not without irony that I resume my blog with a post about the importance of communicating with investors. (And as my investors know, I pretty much suck at that, so this is my public way of admitting that I know it, and promising to get better.)

As many of you know, my friend Tom Ryan has created a Startup Junkie support group that meets monthly to talk (okay, drink, a lot) and we communicate all the time about the issues that we all face as startups. A recent thread about investor communications really caught my imagination. How often do you do it? How? What do you say? What do you expect from it?

continue reading

"I just want to finish something, that's why." That was my answer when a friend / advisor asked me why I was taking on a creative boondoggle the other day. As any startup junkie knows, the PROCESS of building a company is interminable. You never finish, it's never done, it is a life of two-steps-forward-one-step-back. Building a company takes FOREVER!

Or does it? If you ask the creative minds behind Seattle's Six Hour Startup, it can be a quick and simple process. All hands on deck for a 6-hour sprint and "VOILA," instant company. How appealing is that?

continue reading

My alternate title for this post was, " Oh F*#&k, Political Correctness Run Amok." But I thought better of it. (Well, not that much better, clearly.) I've been promising to write a blog post about sexuality in the workplace for a while now, but every time I start to write, I realize what a loaded topic it is, mired in intractable biases, fears and subjective beliefs. Who in their right mind would walk into that minefield?

Oh, that's right, I would. And I'll do it in stilettos, if it's all the same to you.

continue reading

There are few subjects that spend as much time on the forefront of an entrepreneur's fried brain as fundraising. The industry of raising money for startups is starting to seem almost as big as the startup industry itself. There are venture fairs, conferences, lunches, cocktail parties, retreats and one-on-one meetings happening pretty much every day in Seattle. There are some that cost a small fortune, some that are virtually free, some that have education components, some that are clandestine meetings with wealthy individuals that we are so grateful to get because someone believed in us enough to hook us up. There are advisors and mentors and favors and bounties. But however they get it, entrepreneurs are raising money.

So, imagine my surprise when I sat down for a friendly cup of coffee (NOT a pitch) with a VC and she looked at me and earnestly asked me why I was raising money.

Um, because I HAVE to?

continue reading

Because if you can't laugh at the process, you'll drink yourself into oblivion until your idea is a distant memory barely pulling you out of the gutter - like remembering that one time, at band camp, when the cute boy kissed you as OMD played in the background and you felt like the star of every John Hughes movie ever made. Ah, youth!

These made me laugh so hard... And it's what I needed as I head out to go give a talk that I didn't even kind of prepare for at the UW Today. But it reminded me that humor is everything.

So, check out VC Wear t-shirts. I'm linking to the page that also has "Startup Wear" t-shirts, so you can see them all. I have a few suggestions for t-shirts, if anyone's listening.

1. The 20% my credit card companies want is nothing compared to what you're asking for.
2. My kid needs braces.
3. That's the best idea I've ever heard, don't know why all my market research didn't show me that, you must be an expert!
4. Everyone you know has already invested.
5. It's a product, not an idea.
6. Yes, 1%, that's all we need to succeed.
7. Yes, REALLY, I DO have the next Google.

Sounds like the beginning of a joke, I know. But it wasn't. It was a great way to spend a couple hours, in the middle of the day. (Have I mentioned lately that I love being my own boss?)

Lemme 'splain. I got a call the other day from a woman named Shari Storm who has a book deal (and impending deadline) to write a book about how motherhood prepares you to play a leadership role in business. And she wanted to interview me. Aw shucks. (That was me feigning, I mean faking, humility.)

continue reading

Shelly Farnham is cool. She's a kick-butt smart thinker with a PhD in social psychology and a killer background in developing technology that connects people. She is one of 3 founders of the sexy and smart Waggle Labs, a slightly stealth operation here in Seattle that is perpetually percolating projects that use technology to foster meaningful interactions between users – both online and offline. There is no shortage of cool tech companies in Seattle, nor of brilliant thinkers and great ideas, some of which will never see the light of day but are wonderful none the less. There is, however, a shortage of women. I'm not saying there's a reason for it – pernicious or otherwise – just a statement of fact. So I asked Shelly to chat about being a woman in the super male-dominated world of tech startups.

continue reading

Without further ado, here is the video that filmmakers Eric Koto and Robert Nachbar made for ESIF this year. Featuring (brilliant and witty) interviews with 4 Seattle entrepreneurs talking about pitching, building, crying, laughing and the general insanity of running a startup.

While I find it EXTREMELY painful to watch myself on video, I have to say, these guys did an incredible job of culling hours and hours of tape into 10 minutes that really give a good sense of what it's like..... Nice job everyone. And this is the last time EVER that I will appear side by side with Sam. I love you Sam, but you are tooooooo damn good!

I tried – I really, really tried – to not respond to a recent blog post by fellow P-I Blogger Lisa Quast. Really, what good comes of critiquing someone else's content? Of stirring the pot? I'll tell you one thing for sure, it sure as hell doesn't get you promoted.

Thank God – or someone – that I have no interest in being promoted and much more interest in shaking people awake and saying, "this is the worst advice I have ever heard."

Or maybe not.

continue reading

One of the things that I have learned in the process of building JUST CAUSE IT is that there is nothing – and I mean nothing – that is more important to our success as a company (and probably as individuals too) than the ability to surround ourselves with smart, kind, generous people who can help us in ways that we don't even know we need help.

Today is the birthday of one of those people. And in trying – in vain – to think of ways to celebrate him, I realized today that really, the best thing I can do is to share his wisdom with all of you. There is no one who has taught me more about business than Scott Lipsky. No one who has taught me more about my own potential in business than Scott. (No one who can so quickly reduce me to tears and then help me realize that sometimes I am my own biggest obstacle than Scott.)

So, here is an incomplete list of things that I have learned from Scott, that hopefully you can benefit from as well. Most of them, I think, are not things he intended to teach me, which is a lesson in and of itself. (Good things come from Left Field, catch them!)

continue reading

It's been a year since I first pitched at ESIF For those who don't know, ESIF (Early Stage Investment Forum) is a yearly show-and-tell put on by Northwest Entrepreneur Network.

There are a lot of groups – some non-profit, like NWEN and Alliance of Angels. Some for-profit, like Kieretsu and Zino – that offer an audience to entrepreneurs who are looking for investors. So, what is it about NWEN that always manages to pull hundreds of people in for an all – day event?

continue reading

Mother's Day is on Sunday. In honor of the day, I sent out a query mompreneurs asking for their insight on how being a mother makes them better in business, and how running a business makes them a better mother. I had more than 200 responses in less than 24 hours. Seems that we, the working mothers of the world, have a lot to say on the matter.

I really wish that I could include all of them in this post – it's the mom in me maybe, I just want to make sure that everyone is included. But, to do that would make this a book, not a blog post. (And yes, I've already contacted my agent and am writing a proposal….)

continue reading