Advice for Startup Leaders - 101

If you are an entrepreneur or a learning leader some podcasts I highly recommend are 'Tribes of Mentors', 'How to build a startup', 'We study billionaires', 'and Blitzscaling'. There are many others out there but these are the ones I have stuck with. A recent one I heard on building startups from the good folks at YCombinator and Stanford share simple reminders that I want to record here. I have often found its the simple things that are hard to practice and be consistent with. John Maeda researcher on complexity says "its the simple things in design that have the greatest complexities hidden behind in its evolution and background" (paraphrase mine). The evolution of making it

simple -  goes through a creative, complex and a disruptive birthing process. The ones mentioned below though simple are often hard to arrive at, so here they are:

• While doing sales and marketing getting a 'yes' and 'no' is better than a thousand "maybe's". The 'Yes' and 'No' leads are the ones that allow you to focus/zero in your energies and save you from wasting time. 
• While prospecting listen to your prospective client 70% of the time and focus only 30% of your the time talking or selling. 
• Always have your 30-second pitch ready on what your company does. Be Clear and Concise. 
• Prepare a two-minute or less pitch on what your products and services are while courting investors.
• Simplify your business model showing how you are bending the cost curve and leveraging efficiencies while planning to remain profitable. 
• Be in control of the meeting while asking for money. You are not begging, you are inviting them to come on a journey and that they have the opportunity to invest. 
• If you are meeting investors in the same week in the same city...run investor meetings on same days or closely together on those days of that week if possible... it saves you time and helps you gain perspectives on questions, offers, and misses.
• If possible hire a full-time person who can focus on talking to investors and raising money;  Raising money and searching for potential angel investors/funders can be distracting while you are building a product/service and managing the business growth. 
• Be articulate and transparent about founder commitments and relationships
• Don't be too technical, tell them what problem you are trying to solve and what is the value proposition that will make customers buy your product or service.