Venture Hacks

In the second part of my interview with Eric Ries, we discuss (1) acquiring customers without launching and (2) opening up board meetings to the entire company.
At IMVU, Eric and the management opened up board meetings to the entire company. Why?

To give people the information they need to do their jobs.
To teach everyone in the [...]

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Before you continue, read Eric Ries’ excellent Don’t launch, where he questions the assumptions behind most marketing launches.
If you ask most entrepreneurs why they want to launch, you’ll get an answer like, “So people find out about my product — are you stupid?” But a thoughtful founder who read Eric’s article recently asked me,
The [...]

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Pitching Hacks is here. The PDF is $29 and you can download it immediately. 83 pages. Buy it here.
Samples
We’ve raised $100 million for startups like Epinions, invested another $20 million in companies like Twitter, and advised many others. Pitching Hacks shows you how to apply the simple lessons we’ve learned along the way. Check out [...]

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Summary: The most common question we hear from entrepreneurs is, “Can you introduce me to investors?” Yes we can. We’re going to recommend startups on Venture Hacks. Investors are invited to subscribe to our recommendations. And everyone is welcome to recommend startups here. Request an invite if you want to help test the Recommended [...]

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We get lots of email from people asking for advice. We’re going to start answering the most interesting questions here, so everyone can participate in the discussion.
Got a question? Send it to ask@venturehacks.com. We read every question. Names will be changed to protect the innocent.
In the meantime, catch up on past editions of Ask Venture [...]

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We will be holding our first Office Hours this Thursday!
The “office” is a teleconference that anyone can join via Skype or phone. The dial-in information is below.
Bring your questions about raising capital to office hours—we will do our best to give you answers. You can also submit questions in the comments below.
We will record the [...]

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“Having information that the other side doesn’t have gives [VCs] an advantage… they take advantage of entrepreneurs who haven’t been through this before… they were totally willing to take advantage of us.”
– Mitch Kapor, Founders at Work
“Knowledge is Power.”
– Sir Francis Bacon
In this series of articles, we’re going to explain how to negotiate a great [...]

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