Entrepreneurship – Page 4 – Ben Parr.com — A Little Attention Can Change the World

Q: When Should a Startup Not Accept Venture Capital? A: When It Doesn’t Need It.

A few weeks ago, I came across this gem of a question on Quora: When should a startup not accept venture capital? Most people assume that raising money is always a good thing, that it will make your business better 100% of the time. That’s not always true — in fact many entrepreneurs raise money… Continue reading Q: When Should a Startup Not Accept Venture Capital? A: When It Doesn’t Need It.

Q: What Makes a Great Leader? A: Communication

I stumbled across an interesting question on Quora today: “Which makes a better leader, a person who communicates well with other people, or a person who gets the job done?” While I think the author was hoping people would say that charismatic leaders aren’t as important as specialized professionals/strategists/work horses, the comments surprisingly went in… Continue reading Q: What Makes a Great Leader? A: Communication

Stop Trying to Chase Success

There’s a fantastic thread on Quora that’s been grabbing some attention lately. The thread in question, If I haven’t succeeded in my mid 20s, could I be successful in the rest of my life?, hits hard on the human need to be someone special… to be important… to matter. Of course as you’d expect, the… Continue reading Stop Trying to Chase Success

Life as an Entrepreneur Can Be Hell (Make Sure It’s for You)

VC and GRP Partner Mark Suster had a fantastic piece in TechCrunch on what it’s like to be an entrepreneur and how it isn’t for the feint of heart. While I suggest reading it in its entirety, there were two parts that resonated with me. First was his list of qualities/attribute entrepreneurs should have. Here’s… Continue reading Life as an Entrepreneur Can Be Hell (Make Sure It’s for You)

What Does a Co-Editor Do, Anyway?

While I spend a lot of time on entrepreneurial projects (two iPhone apps and a novel I’m trying to get picked up), I am best known as the Co-Editor of Mashable. I started writing for Mashable in 2009 before becoming Associate Editor in March 2010. Now I am the Co-Editor of a nearly 30-person company,… Continue reading What Does a Co-Editor Do, Anyway?

Don't Rely on Anecdotal Evidence to Prove Your Point

The definition of Anecdotal Evidence, via Wikipedia: (2) Evidence, which may itself be true and verifiable, used to deduce a conclusion which does not follow from it, usually by generalizing from an insufficient amount of evidence. For example “my grandfather smoked like a chimney and died healthy in a car crash at the age of… Continue reading Don't Rely on Anecdotal Evidence to Prove Your Point

Mentorship and Your Startup

It shouldn’t surprise you that the vast majority of the world’s most successful businesses and entrepreneurs didn’t do it alone. Apple’s Steve Jobs had co-founder Steve Wozniak, Microsoft’s Bill Gates had co-founder Paul Allen, and Google was built by two men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. And any successful startup needs a driven, flexible, intelligent,… Continue reading Mentorship and Your Startup

There's Only One Metric of Success in Business: PROFIT

Watch the first two minutes of this speech I gave at Northwestern (I’ve tagged the part of the video where I talk about it), and you’ll see how I picked the title of this article: Jason Fried of 37Signals has once again brought down the reality check hammer, about something I keep harping about: profit.… Continue reading There's Only One Metric of Success in Business: PROFIT