Are you a good CEO? What kind of leader are you? Many CEOs sink the value of their company by getting distracted by their own media. A good leader and CEO will prioritize the needs of the venture over their personal wants. It is important to learn what outlets and assets to properly leverage to build value in the venture rather than unwittingly destroying the company’s value by indulging in their personal megalomania. * The 4 archetypes of CEOs: * Naked Emperor/Megalomaniac CEO:...

A CEO’s job is to build long term value in their company. Yet many CEOs fail. Having the right CEO to lead a company is critical to a venture’s success. The wrong CEO can be disastrous. Learn to spot the red flags, and ask the right questions to understand who the best CEO is to lead your venture towards exceptional long term value. * CEO case example: American Apparel CEO ousting overview * The 4 archetypes of CEOs: * Naked Emperor CEO: Typically rule by fear, and need ‘yes men’...

CEO John Kawola of Harvest Automation discusses the challenges of selling innovation to a traditional marketplace that is generally slow to adopt new technologies. John Kawola talks about the need to invest in building face-to-face relationships with the customer and utilizing ‘old school’ sales techniques such as product education and trials to convert sales. Selling innovation is key to generating long term venture value. * Introduction of Show Topic: How High Growth Ventures Can Bridge...

Building Product and Brand Awareness with Cheryl Rosner, CEO Stayful.com Building brand awareness is key to venture success. Stayful CEO Cheryl Rosner discusses the challenges of building product and brand awareness amongst multiple customer groups.  The show includes an in-depth conversation exploring the evolution of creating brand awareness with early adopting customers who are integrally involved in product development to mass market customers who want a perfect product at a low...

An excellent product launch is critical for venture success. Robert Frisch, CEO of Firelight Camps, discusses the key challenges of preparing for a product launch. Firelight is bringing ‘glamping’ (a high end camping experience) to unique hotel properties and vineyards. The UC and Robert discuss the product launch of an innovative product in the traditional hospitality market space. Key product launch challenges include identifying valuable core customers, gaining market traction, and finding...

CEO Jordan Schindler of Nüfabrx discusses bringing his venture to the next major milestone by balancing investment in sales and inventory management. The discussion hits the 3 key impediments towards achieving the critical milestones in a high growth venture and discusses solutions for building a venture of significant value. Nufabrx Overview: This venture has created a new way to administer essential oils, medications, vitamins and cosmeceuticals. Their approach embeds medications into any...

Michael O. “Coop” Cooper, one of the world’s top business coaches, facilitators and trainers, is the founder of Innovators and Influencers. Coop and The Unapologetic Capitalist discuss how high growth ventures can best work to achieve their major milestones. * Introduction of Show Topic: How High Growth Ventures Can Bridge the Chasm from Today to The Next Major Milestones * Brief Review of Past Shows * 5 Bar Chart * Building the Right and Profitable Customer Base * Cultivating...

Attracting new customers and earning their loyalty is hard and getting harder. Customers are fickle and overly informed. In today’s day and age of instant information overload, how can you effectively attract customers and earn loyalty? Technology and social media, have given discerning consumers a lot more to consider when they buy. This makes it very challenging to attract customers and demonstrate the value in paying for your product over the many other substitutes out there. The same goes...

Successfully building customer loyalty will add significant value to your venture. However, creating and cultivating customer loyalty has become more and more difficult in the digital age. Customers are finicky, and the options to use competitive or substitutive products keep growing. Good enough at the right price will win in today’s marketplace. To be successful, you must convert the right customers to ‘stay and pay.’ Properly investing in long term customer loyalty will build significant...

Everyone loves free stuff. But once you’ve given your product away for free, you’ve just valued it at zero. People clamor to get free stuff like it is the most valuable thing ever, but once they’ve gotten it for free, they will almost never pay for it, because what they really value is the feeling of having ‘won’ something or gotten ‘something for nothing.’ The ‘freemium’ model of giving away your product today in the hopes to earn dollars from them tomorrow has created a lot of problems that...

The age old mantra of “buying low and selling high” is the basis for making money on any transaction including an M&A deal. However, there is a difference in perspective if you are a day trader or a house flipper versus buying something to generate substantial long term value.  For instance, sensitivity to purchase price is going to be very different for someone buying an investment property versus a buyer looking for a home to live in for many years. There are a lot of great reasons to...

Patience is a virtue. However, leaders and entrepreneurs tend to be inherently impatient. No matter what stage your company is in, you will always feel the pressure of time and results. Time and results are like a chicken and egg situation.  Time will afford you the chance for results, and results will afford you more time. But usually you have dollars flowing out like sands in an hour glass and you don’t have the luxury of letting things play out. Leaders often unknowingly shoot themselves...

Getting deals done often comes down to business relationships. Sometimes you have to deal with relationships that have gone sour which puts any business in jeopardy. You will have to decide whether or not the value in that relationship is worth saving. There are MANY ways to cross a bridge, but burning that bridge is NEVER going to be an option a smart person will take. But as last episode points out, there are a lot of bad managers and business people that you will have to deal with and they...

When getting business done, you will have to deal with bad managers. However, business still needs to get done. It is very difficult to be the one who has to point out that the Emperor is naked. So here’s a bit of a conundrum: Are you going to believe in truth above harmony? Or would you prioritize harmony above truth? Both philosophies have intention for long-term value creation. Someone who puts harmony above truth will let slide some bad behavior or some inaccurate facts so as not to...

Whether you are working on deal, raising money, dealing with a partner, vendor or employee, at some point, the relationship might start to go south. Defeat may be looming, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still salvage victory. What happens when you are crossing a proverbial bridge and see that there might be a crack in the foundation? Do you stop and fix it? Could the bridge come crumbling down? And if that’s the case, do you get off the bridge or ensure you fix it before it gets to that...

Cultivating talent is critical to business success. While some things can be taught, other things are simply innate. In cultivating talent, understanding what is nature versus nurture is essential. In our quest for building long-term extraordinary value, it is really important that we invest in what we can learn or what we can teach. Know how to spot and be able to acquire the talent that cannot be taught. Most of all, to truly cultivate talent, we must stop wasting precious resources in...

Being your own boss sounds great when you are working in a large corporation or are in school, but it comes with unique and sometimes Herculean challenges. Being your own boss also means that it all comes down to you. You may feel like you ‘get’ to make the final decisions, but you are the one who has to bear the burden of the outcomes. You may think you have those who work ‘for’ you, but in reality, you have people whose livelihoods now depend on you. Gerald Lucas is the founder and CEO of...

An All Star team isn’t necessarily the OPTIMAL team. Team chemistry matters and optimally allocating your resources to germinate good leaders and managers within your company is paramount for success. There is some logic (though often short-sighted) in plucking single players out of another environment and putting them with other “All Star” individuals of excellent talent on to your team. You can even convince yourself that you’ve put together the ‘best team’ possible. However, what is best...

There are times to lead and times to manage. It is important to know the difference between leadership and management. Leaders and managers are distinctly different roles. Many companies err because they don’t understand the difference between a leader and manager. Leaders fail when they manage instead of lead, and managers fail when they lead in situations that demand management. Whether you are a leader or a manager, there is no substitute for experience. Companies both early stage and...

Building market share and engaging in your marketplace is pivotal for long term success in your business. One of the most effective and valuable ways to build market share is attending conferences and trade shows where your market share is captive and IN PERSON. Don’t think you can hide behind your electronics just be active in your social media to establish relationships to build meaningful market share. You need to get your brand and yourself out there in the real world to be competitive...

Terminating a relationship of any kind really sucks. There’s just no getting around that. However, so often we find ourselves in situation where we need to cut the fat in our organizations. Sometimes we need to get rid of a toxin. So whether you are cutting the fat or creating addition by subtraction, there are many times when you will have to terminate relationships in your company. You may do it in the form of a layoff, a firing for cause, or a resignation. Ideally you will be able to open...

Learn the 3 key venture capital investment fallacies and how to avoid them so that you can be successful in fund raising for your venture. Learn the three key venture capital investment fallacies and how to avoid them so that you can be successful in fund raising for your venture. Understand the venture capital investor perspective and priorities so you can get in front of the right investor at the right time with the right opportunity. So what do venture capital investors...

Venture capital investing and entrepreneurship one of the riskiest business paths to take. The great irony is that most of the folks involved in venture capital investing are perversely risk adverse. When raising money from venture capital investors, it helps to know what the view is like from their side of the table and what ultimately drives their decision making process.

Raising money takes time, but sometimes you need to see results NOW. But you still need to raise money the right way for the right reasons. Some companies have the luxury to wait out a rough market or a long funding road, but the ‘wait and see’ folks aren’t the innovators and aren’t the long-term winners. This episode discusses viable options for raising money in the near term that still builds long term value.

Making money means taking risks. Venture capital is some of the riskiest dollars to invest, yet venture capitalists are some of the most risk averse people on the planet. Most of us fear losing our jobs or fear being wrong, and sadly too many find comfort in dangerous group think so that if they are wrong, they can point to all the other people who were also wrong. However, fear based or passion driven decisions rarely work out well. Through understanding how the world of venture capital,...