Climb the Vertical Learning Curve
Founders need to master a huge number of skills and topics all while scrambling to keep their business running.
Feel the Boot is here to walk with you along the difficult and rewarding path you have chosen.
111. Freemium Business Models: The Good, the Bad, and an Alternative You Should Consider
The freemium business model is popular, but is it right for your startup?
110. How to Pivot Your Startup Before You Launch 🚀 Pre-Pivot Strategies for Entrepreneurs
What if you could pivot before building your solution or going to market? Imagine the resources you could save!
107. Startup Failure Analysis 🔎 Key Lessons from Abby Sugar
In the world of startups, success stories often steal the spotlight. Yet, failure is a far more common companion on the entrepreneurial journey.
105. How to Make Your Startup Elevator Pitch Effective 🚀 and Get Venture Capital Investment
Your elevator pitch is more than just an introduction; it’s the gateway to potential investment and growth opportunities.
101. Decoding Startup Sales Strategy 🧐 Michael Regnier Interview
Sales strategy is often a neglected aspect of many tech startups, especially those led by technical founders.
98. Startup Fundraising Facilitators 🐍 Surviving the Pit of Serpents!
Raising money from investors is a long, arduous process, so many founders seek help.
In response, a whole cadre of people specializing in that sprang up, often called fundraising facilitators. The problem is that most of them appear to be ineffective at best and harmful at worst.
96. Startup Privacy Policies 🥷 What you need to know about GDPR, CCPA and beyond!
In this interview, Sabir Ibrahim, an attorney and entrepreneur, provides valuable insights on the implications of privacy and privacy policies for startups.
94. Escape the Startup Paradox 😬 Strategies for Funding Product Development
There's a paradox that impacts most startups early in their journeys. You can't make your product without money, and you can't get money without a product.
91. 🥳 Non-monetary Startup Rewards and Recognitions
You want to attract and, more importantly, retain top talent. but you can’t pay top dollar. So what can you do?
89. Non-Dilutive Startup Fundraising 💰 SBIR Grants for Innovation
In this interview, Caroline Arzoo, Director of Partnerships at OmniSync, and I discuss the different options for funding a startup, with a focus on non-dilutive funding.
87. Get Angel Investor Dealflow 💸
Once you decide to start angel investing, your first challenge is finding strong dealflow. You need access to a large number of companies looking for funding that meet your general target criteria, because most won’t be worthy of your money.
80. Fire the Founder? 🔥 Take the initiative and replace yourself as CEO
Most successful startups will eventually outgrow their founding CEO. If you handle it correctly, you can have a good experience and an even better long-term outcome. Here’s what happened to me.
77. Pitching when tech’s glitching. Handle PowerPoint failure with style!
Sometimes when you pitch, the technology won’t cooperate. Learn to handle it so you look as good or better than you would have if everything had gone perfectly.
73. When your startup hits hard times: quit, pivot, or persevere?
Almost every startup finds itself in a dark place where it seems they have few options. Even if things are going well for you now, keeping these strategies in your back pocket will probably help at some point.
57. Startup Lifecycles and Surviving No Man’s Land – Ruth King Interview
Profitability Master Ruth King, the award-winning author of 5 books including “the Courage to be Profitable” and “Profit or Wealth?”, talks about the lifecycle of startups and surviving a phase she calls “No Man’s Land.”
55. Create a pitch deck that investors can read in seconds, because that may be all you get
Most investors just skim pitch decks in a few seconds. This technique ensures they still get the key information about your startup.
54. What projects to prioritize, and which you should kill, in your startup
In startups, resources are critically limited. What are you going to build, and more importantly, what will not get built?
53. Virtual Pitching and Fundraising Over Zoom, What Founders Need to Know
Most investment pitching now happens over video conferences, so mastering remote fundraising is critical.
50. Bad startup advice creates cargo cult thinking. Learn to spot and avoid it.
Startup advice, in the form of a recipe or template for success, can cause more harm than good. Learn what to look out for.
49. Six reasons to delay automating processes in your startup as long as possible
Why should you put off automating business processes as long as possible? Learn the benefit of doing things by hand in the early stages of a business.
45. Founders, your competition might not be what you think it is
I want to talk about a different way of thinking about your competitive environment. Your competition isn't just the other companies in your space.
40. How to make luck and exploit hidden business opportunities
Intelligence, skill, and hard work are necessary for your startup to succeed, but they are often not enough. In my experience, you need to be lucky too.
38. Identify the one strength you must emphasize in your fundraising pitch with four startup case studies
When you pitch to investors, your audience will only remember a couple of ideas. Learn what about your company will wow investors.
37. Lisa Tamayo - Feel the Boot Interview
Lisa Tamayo, serial entrepreneur, angel investor, CEO/Co-founder of Scollar, talked about their pivot from product to platform, and shared her hard-won experience about the startup process.
35. A tool for choosing the best business direction and strategy for your startup. Part 1
If you need to choose a problem to solve, identify your customers, and settle on a solution. This framework will help you through the process.
34. Iris Fujiura - Feel the Boot interview
Iris Fujiura, Chapter Lead of the Silicon Valley chapter of Golden Seeds, and an engineer/executive working on rockets and launch systems, provides great insight into angel investor priorities, and what makes for a successful funding pitch.
32. Interview with Che Voigt, CEO & Co-Founder of Altwork
Che Voigt, co-founder and CEO of AltWork and chair of the North Bay Angels, talks about their innovative workstation and how the work from home trend is driving sales and their experiences with a China based supply chain during COVID.
31. Nine things angel investors look for in startup fundraising pitches
I interviewed numerous angel investors to create this list of nine things angels want to learn in your pitch.
30. Elizabeth Gore’s Feel the Boot Interview
Elizabeth Gore, co-founder and president of Alice (helloalice.com), shares numerous insights that will be of great help to any small business owner..
29. Escape the busyness trap that tricks entrepreneurs into working hard while accomplishing little
The busyness trap is when you get caught in a pattern of doing a lot but accomplishing little. I share some approaches to escaping from that trap.
28. How to create financials for early stage pre-seed startups that will wow investors
When you talk to an investor, they expect you to show financial projections. How can you do that when you are pre-revenue?
27. How To Launch A Startup With Zero Capital
Learn how to launch a company without savings or investment.
26. Five critical steps to save your startup during a catastrophe like COVID-19
During an economic crisis, companies need to take immediate and radical action to stay alive. These five moves can save your startup.
25. In startups, distractions are everywhere. Entrepreneurs must find the fine balance of intense focus without rigidity.
What’s the difference between an intentional pivot and just having no clear direction? Learn to achieve focus with flexibility.
23. Why are even successful startups and entrepreneurs having trouble raising their Series-A rounds?
Why are so many strong startups failing to raise their A-Rounds?
22. One thing most successful companies share: a pivot
Almost all successful companies share one thing in common: a pivot. Learning and adapting can be the best path to growth and success.
20. Passion is the secret weapon of successful entrepreneurs. Learn how to identify and leverage it.
Passion provides a gigantic competitive advantage. Learn how to connect your business to your passion.
19. Raising Capital: Why you need more money than you think
When you are raising funds for your startup, one of the biggest questions is, “How much should I ask for?”
18. While starting a business, when should you quit your day job?
One of the most frightening moments as an entrepreneur is when you finally quit your day job. You can risk reduce that transition and improve your chances for angel funding at the same time.
16. Why founders don’t delegate as much as they should
As a human, you don’t scale well. That means delegating, which can be painful but is the only path to growth.
15. Priorities and Perseverance: Finding balance and moving forward in the face of major adversity
Making a video while evacuated from a massive wildfire helped me think about my priorities and when to push through difficulties.
13. The three kinds of viral growth and how to use them in your startup
Virality is the holy grail of business models. Learn the three different kinds of virality which you can use in your startup.
12. How to pitch your blockchain startup to a skeptical investors
Most blockchain pitches I see are terrible. Learn how they go wrong so you can avoid those mistakes.
11. Understanding Control and Power in Your Startup
You want to keep control of your startup, but that does not mean you need to keep 51% ownership. Learn what really matters here.
10. Understanding how and why to leverage stock options in your startup
What are the best ways to use stock options to motivate employees?
9. Understanding stock options from the employee perspective
What are stock options, and how do you explain them to your employees so they appreciate them?
8. Pre-Seed Through A and Beyond: What are all those investment rounds?
What is the difference between pre-seed, seed, A, B, and C rounds?
7. Why ideas matter less than execution to investors and your startup business
Why do investors want to hear about your ability to execute more than your idea?
3. Are angels greedy to demand a massive 20X return on investment?
Why do angels & VC demand 20X or better returns? It all comes down to the economics of startup investing.
2. Why I don’t care about your technology!
I don’t care about your technology when you are pitching me as an angel investor. What should you be focusing on instead?
1. Is your passion project worth a day of your vacation time?
Sometimes you need to make a sacrifice to get your big dream off the ground. What’s it worth to you?