Tag Archives: Financial Services

Align Your “Loss Ratio” Expectations with Your Investors

In early stage venture capital, the best investors expect that 40% of their investments will become worthless.  Thus, they focus on companies that could be worth billions because the winners have to make up for all their losses.  They want every company to shoot for… Continue reading

Great Business Partners Give You Keys to Success

Business grows through partnerships — sometimes just for a brief transaction and sometimes for life.  Despite the false cliche that “nice guys finish last,” my experience has been that being able to forge good partnerships forges keys to long-term success.  This is because very little… Continue reading

Venture Capital Myths — Not the Answer for Many Companies

Venture capital has been tremendously successful in the United States.  In some ways, it has almost been too successful in that many entrepreneurs think traditional venture capital is the only path to success.  That is not true.  This article in the Harvard Business Review by… Continue reading

Old School Myths About the Ideal Time for Raising Capital (of the Right Type)

Old school myths from last century have stuck around to this century — especially about when to raise capital.  Modern companies often have the freedom to make a decision about when to seek capital because they do not need capital at a certain point in… Continue reading

Competitive Advantage Leads to Persistently Good Performance — Like Top Tier VC Firms

It is good to be the incumbent.  Usually.  They have often built competitive advantages over time.  Except maybe in the ever-changing world of technology, it is usually an advantage for a business to have been around a long time and to have established customers, suppliers,… Continue reading

Business Buyers According to Warren Buffett: Competitors, Flippers, or Berkshire Hathaway!

Whether to sell a business or accept outside equity capital is a high stakes decision for business owners.  Trade-offs are natural and necessary — we instinctively know that we cannot achieve every objective in every decision.  It is pretty easy to categorize the business buyers… Continue reading

Built to Last or Built to Flip?

Is your business built to last or built to flip?  No question influences your business strategy more than this one.  There is no right answer — either strategy is fine.  However, making sure that you have alignment throughout your organization on this question is very… Continue reading