Shark Tank revealed how looking at Gross profit margin  ( how efficiently is the product being produced) against Net profit margin  (how efficiently is the company operating as a whole) can affect your chances of investment.

“Sweat equity is the best kind of startup capital.”— Mark Cuban
This is a huge question for startup founders. If you are a founder, you know what I am talking about: how much of my startup should I give away?

How do we get there? Remember that your organization’s vision is the destination.

David S. Rose, the CEO of Gust and Founder of the New York Angels defines Due Diligence in his book, Angel Investing – The Gust GUIDE TO Making Money and Having Fun Investing in Startups. The careful investigation into a company prior to making an investment.

An efficient board of advisors is not accidental; they require planning. Here are twelve suggestions for creating highly efficient advisory boards.

There are a tremendous amount of “time-saving” options available to the entrepreneur. Sometimes, they are; Sometimes they are not; and sometimes, the old ways of doing things can be more efficient.

It is essential to understand your organization’s dreams for the future, prior to coming up with the pretty words you put on paper and hang in conference rooms. So, how does an organization create an effective vision statement?

Advisory Board compensation is an important consideration. How much is right? Does this change over time? Is there a vesting period?

“We filter out half of these qualified interviewees in the first minute.”

Avoid the purgatory of being non-fundable. Find out the investor’s view and structure of their balance sheet in an “investor friendly” manner before submitting an executive summary to startup investors.