Distilling Venture Capital

Rachel Chalmers knows your Achilles heel. After two plus decades sitting in Silicon Valley's front row watching start-up technology companies, she has a very clear idea of the single biggest cause of start-up failure. Rachel was kind enough to sit down for a few minutes at the Montgomery Summit and talk about it. Listen in to hear what she sees as most critical for entrepreneurial success.

My Guest Rachel Chalmers has been a long time observer and analyst in the world of technology. She describes herself as a failed English teacher. She received a BA degree in English from the University of Sydney and a master's in philosophy, with a focus on Anglo-Irish literature, from Trinity College, Dublin. But her time hanging out with engineering students pointed her towards technology writing.

She started her career writing for MIS Magazine and Computerwire during the mid-late 90's. In 2000 she moved to the 451 Group and focused infrastructure computing for the enterprise. As she puts it she covered: "tools for programmers, power systems administrators and data center operators...and virtualization. Lots and lots and lots of virtualization."

Then in mid-2013 Rachel joined Ignition Partners as a principal investing in enterprise software companies such as BlueData, Carmelo Systems, StreamSets, StrongLoop and Wit.ai

Since 201 Rachel has been an adviser to the Ada Initiative, a non-profit that supports women in open technology and culture. Resources & Links

Rachel's email: Rachel [AT] ignitionpartners [DOT] com LinkedIn Twitter: @rachelchalmers Ignition Partners website The Ada Initiative

I also mentioned a presentation by Bill Gross of IdeaLab from the Montgomery Summit. Here's his slides for the same presentation at a different conference. The whole thing is good, but slide 20 is the key factors in failure. There's also a 15 minute video of his presentation from a conference in Europe.

Bill Gross CEO of Idealab from Vator

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you always hear the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post Shut-up and Listen! Rachel Chalmers Explains the Biggest Mistake You Can Make appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

Can you raise venture capital too easily? Nagarjun "Nag" Palavalli, my guest on this episode, thinks you can. Nag's journey from dropping out of college in India to the fast paced start-up culture at the Alchemist Accelerator in Silicon Valley illustrates the pitfalls of quick success. Nag also discusses why the romantic notion of the lone entrepreneur building a start-up can actually kill a great idea. And Nag identifies the one person he wishes he'd talked to before launching.

My Guest Nag Palavalli is that guy in your dorm that not only talks about dropping out and starting a tech company, but actually goes through with it. As a student Nag was frustrated that his school lacked a decent learning management platform. So he quit and started Eduora.

After doing initial development work in his hometown of Bangalore, India, Nag moved to Silicon Valley to participate in the Alchemist Accelerator. Nag shares his experiences launching on a shoe string and then swimming in deep end of the venture capital pool. The Take Home Lessons

Raising capital quickly and easily isn't necessarily the best thing for a start-up. Nag believes pretty strongly that he would have benefited from the objective feedback off experienced investors. Getting critiques from investors with very broad experience would have helped Nag avoid a number of mistakes. Talk to customers before you design a product. The urge to build something based on your assumptions must be suppressed. Nag was selling to large universities without understanding how they made decisions about purchasing. Never underestimate how complicated sales is when there's a group decision involved. "Be a frolicking deer." Don't hunt the venture capitalists, make them hunt you. The solo entrepreneur is a myth. "When you're on your own your mind will let you agree with whatever you want to agree to."

Resources & Links

Nag's email: me AT nagarjun DOT co Nag's Blog: Nagarjun.co Twitter - @Palavalli Linkedin Facebook Alchemist Accelerator

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post Not So Fast! Nag Palavalli on the Perils of Easy Capital Raising appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

Nigel Grierson has been investing in start-ups for quite awhile, first by launching Intel Capital Europe and then as co-founder of Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. To say he's learned a few things about venture capital success from failure is an understatement. In this episode he shares three of those lessons that apply to any start-up.

My Guest Nigel Grierson co-founded the Doughty Hanson Technology Fund in 2000 and currently serves as co-Managing Director. His specific areas of expertise include financial venture investment, high technology marketing and organisation development.

Previously, Nigel was the Group Director for Intel Capital Europe, managing a team responsible for making strategic equity investments and developing new business opportunities throughout Europe. He and the team together originated and invested in over 35 technology start-up companies and had a number of notable exits. Nigel started his career as a chip engineer and worked at AT&T in the Communications Product Division leading a team developing high performance silicon processors.

Nigel actively participates in the European Venture Capital Association. In this episode he shares some of the things he teaches other venture capitalists about healthy boards of directors in his EVCA seminar. The Take Home Lessons Nigel talks about three major factors that can make or break a venture capital backed start-up. These apply to any start-up regardless off business model.

You are pioneering a future that doesn't exist. So entrepreneurs need to create the best decision making processes possible. In Nigel's experience team decision making is superior to the Lone Ranger model of entrepreneurial leadership. Two heads are better than one. Or as Nigel puts it, two in a box is the key to success. Start-ups need a leader who can provide a vision of the future and a second leader who doesn't visualize the future, but can get you there. You must make time for the important issues because the urgent ones will always find a way onto your desk. Venture capital investors need to consciously spend board time on longer term issues and not get pulled into the day to day grind.

Resources & Links

Nigel on the Doughty Hanson web site LinkedIn Doughty Hanson on Twitter Nigel mentioned David G. Thomson's book Blueprint to a Billion: 7 Essentials To Achieve Exponential Growth

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post 3 Strikes You're Out: Nigel Grierson on 3 Fatal Mistakes Your Venture Backed Start-up Must Avoid appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

Nobody was better prepared for leading a start-up than Jeanette Cajide. She had a solid academic foundations in public relations, communications, business and finance. She'd done technology consulting and turn around management. When a friend pulled her into launching a start-up app company, she was primed and ready. Listen in as Jeanette shares the struggles of getting Blurtt off the ground, pivoting and most importantly get the right people on board.

My Guest Jeanette Cajide currently works at Dialexa, a technology design and engineering firm and leads their Northeast business development efforts out of Cambridge, MA. Jeanette serves in a multitude of capacities at Dialexa working across business development, strategy, product and finance.Most recently she has been helping the company launch Dialexa Labs, Dialexa's internal start-up incubator. The first company to launch in September 2014 is called Vinli, an Internet of Things platform for your car.

Prior to Dialexa, Jeanette co-founded Blurtt, an iPhone app that let people create and share anonymous visual statements. Blurtt was featured in TechCrunch and named Mashable's named Top 6 Apps to Download for the Week.

Jeanette also spent several years on Wall Street in the investment banking program at Merrill Lynch where she closed over $4 billion in municipal finance, M&A and LBO transactions. She also worked at Goldman Sachs, investing the firm's capital in software and digital companies.

She has a MPA from Harvard, an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School and a Bachelor of Journalism in Public Relations from the Univ. of Texas at Austin. The Take Home Lessons Jeanette talks about her journey from the world of business school, Accenture and Goldman Sachs to moving back home with her folks and crashing on friends' couches. Along the way she found out a few lessons that every aspiring entrepreneur should keep in mind.

Team is paramount. If you remember nothing else from this conversation, remember that teams get funded more often than ideas get funded. You can have the right idea...or not. A couple of Blurtt's product iterations have since been launched by other start-ups and established tech companies. Facebook couldn't even pull off a couple of Blurtt's concepts. On the other hand, the idea of anonymous image sharing has taken off with several start-ups. Jeanette points to her experience in turn around consulting as some of her most valuable for the start-up environment. Knowing how to make hard decisions about what to do when resources are scarce proved essential on a daily basis. Keep telling your story. Jeanette shares some funny examples of angel investors who just "didn't get it." And also points to one critical conversation with someone who did get it. Lastly, she talks about the emotional issue of letting go and moving on. An excellent reminder that you can't let your last failure torpedo your next success.

Resources & Links

"Shutting Down Blurtt" - TechCrunch.com article by Jeanette Dialexa, Jeanette's new firm Vinli - Dialexa's connected car company Jeanette on LinkedIn, Twitter, and about.me Email - Jeanette (AT) dialexa (DOT) com

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

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Rick Faulk knew what it took to ramp sales for a venture backed software company. He'd done exactly that for WebEx prior to its sale to Cisco. Then he was asked to do the same thing as co-CEO for three merged social software companies. Listen in as Rick shares what he learned from this cat rodeo about M&A diligence, merging corporate cultures and decisive leadership.

My Guest Rick Faulk has more than 30 years of experience in executive management, sales and marketing in the software industry. He's worked for some of the world's most successful SaaS and technology companies, including Lotus Development, j2 Global, Cisco, WebEx, Intranets.com and PictureTel.

Currently Rick is the Chairman and CEO of Intronis, a provider of white label cloud storage solutions. Prior to Intronis, Rick was General Manager of Cloud Services for Sales & Marketing at j2 Global. As President & co-CEO of Mzinga, Rick worked to merge two learning management software companies with a social networking software company. Immediately prior to Mzinga, Rick was Chief Marketing Officer of WebEx Communications and President of WebEx Small Business, where he was responsible for the company's worldwide go-to-market and customer acquisition strategies.

Rick currently sits on the boards of Yodle, SkillSurvey, Bidding4Good and BatteryCorp and is an advisor to other start-up businesses. Rick holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Bowling Green State University. The Take Home Lessons My conversation with Rick centered on his experience at Mzinga. The Company is still operating, but did not achieve the market success that Rick and the venture capital investors had hoped for. It's a strong niche player in social learning and customer communities, but all involved had hoped for much greater growth and market presence.

Rick boiled down the lessons he learned into a few headlines:

You've really got to dig in and do your own diligence when companies are being merged. Ask the hard questions and search for the skeletons in closets. While it seems obvious, there needs to be real clarity about the future direction of the merged company. Leadership then has to step up and make the hard decisions to move in that direction, i.e. goals, responsibilities, compensation all have to be in alignment. Compromise isn't necessarily a good thing. Co-CEOs and merged management teams can make alignment particularly difficult. Approach this organizational structure with great care. Financial systems and a quality CFO are critical. Mzinga ran into trouble when financial reporting wasn't timely and accurate. You can't steer a business with bad data. Further more, cleaning up financial systems creates a huge distraction. The ultimate lessons "buyer beware" and "change is really hard" are somewhat obvious. In our conversation Rick dives deeper into these and looks at the nuances and signs of trouble.

Resources & Links

Rick's company Intronis Rick on LinkedIn Rick on Twitter

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post Herding Cats: Rick Faulk on Merging Start-ups appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

Entrepreneurship is not for wimps. It's a good thing Barry Weinbaum learned how to take a punch when he was a kid growing up in the Bronx. He got socked by a massive telecom market meltdown, an over-sized, cash burning lab and factory, a founder law suit and a divided board. Oh yeah, and he had a few competitors as well. Barry lived to fight another day, so listen in to hear the valuable lessons he learned.

My Guest Barry Weinbaum became a serial entrepreneur after a 20+ year career at Lucent Technologies. With his rich telecom infrastructure and technology experience, he left Lucent to lead NanoOpto Corp. After selling NanoOpto, he headed into the lighting sector as CEO of Renaissance Lighting, a venture capital and angel backed LED company. Renaissance was acquired by Acuity Brands and Barry took on corporate marketing, strategy and coordination across Acuity Brands' 22 lines of business. Investors then recruited Barry to head back into the start-up world to try and turn around LUMEnergi, a lighting control company. He managed a successful sale of the company's assets and investor exit. Currently Barry is launching Social Learning and Payments, Inc. (aka SLAP). The Slap platform provides self-service tools for identifying and driving desired real-world and online actions among communities, and then providing rewards (a "slap on the back") when those actions occur.

Along the way Barry has been issued three patents in both telecom and lighting. He originally hails from the Bronx New York and has degrees in Computer Science from Union College and Columbia University. The Take Home Lessons

Barry was recruited out of a corporate career to take over as CEO in a founder led company. The transition did not go well. Barry ended up putting a lot of effort into dealing with the founder and making sure the Company had a firm foundation of its own intellectual property. As the telecom industry collapsed, the Company had to pivot and start selling into the consumer electronics sector. "Design wins" were easier to come by because of the large number of mobile phones being released. Sales were not guaranteed for any particular model and this creating forecasting problems. NanoOpto's founder had built out a large R&D and manufacturing facility. Without sales this overhead became a monster that needed to be feed. Barry describes the facility has hardware collecting a pension that you can't afford to pay. Board Size - The Company's board grew to 15 people with 9 members and 6 "observers". This got unwieldy and dysfunctional. In hind site,keeping the board down in size and limiting observers (who ended up participating, not observing) would have prevented a lot of wasted energy. Smart Money - Barry notes that in the later stages, NanoOpto took investments from funds that didn't understand the business or add any strategic value. When things started going sideways, they created numerous problems. CEOs must understand that venture capitalists have a tough conflict of interest to reconcile. When the going gets tough, investors will almost without fail do what's in the best interest of the fund, not the Company. The venture backed CEO that doesn't understand is in for some confusing interaction with board members. Of course you have to over communicate and treat people like adults. Especially when things are going badly. The same goes for industry partners outside of the company. Lastly, Barry advises entrepreneurs to manage their mood and emotions carefully. Don't get too high and don't get too low. People are always watching and they'll either be overly optimistic or overly pessimistic if that's the vibe you send out.

Resources & Links

Barry on LinkedIn Barry's current company SLAP

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Kevin Naughton had done the start-up thing and moved on. Then came the call: "We're in trouble. Can you come back and help us sell the company?" Kevin answered the call and returned for a second tour of duty at GTess, a Dallas based healthcare claims processing start-up. Listen in as Kevin explains what he learned about hiring too fast, customer consolidation, following industry norms down the wrong road and flying blind without proper financial and business metrics.

My Guest An entrepreneurial CFO, Kevin Naughton has worked with four different venture backed companies over 20 years. He's raised over $60M of capital from a wide group of venture capital firms. Currently, he's part of the senior team at Prodea Systems. Prior to that he was twice the CFO of GTess.

Kevin earned a BS and MBA from Bentley College. While he's lived in Texas for many years, he's a native New Englander and a life long Cape Cod junkie. The Take Home Lessons During his two tours of duty at GTess, Kevin saw a number of key factors that led to the company's demise.

All B2B start-ups have small customer bases almost by definition. GTess' customers began to consolidate which drove down both the number of customers and revenue. GTess also faced a classic pricing challenge. To gain early acceptance, discounts were given. This evolved into a longer term lack of pricing discipline. Understanding how to price the value that you provide is crucial. Start-ups are not normal. So using industry norms can take you down the wrong path. Kevin notes that sales people insisted on compensation plans that matched those of mature companies. This approach didn't emphasize new account growth which should have been the top priority. Pressure to hire faster and accelerate growth, however, creates its own problems. Kevin explains that rapidly expanding your sales team before you understand the sales model and cost structure creates huge problems. Lastly, like any good entrepreneurial CFO, Kevin worked to create financial metrics to understand the business. Without these a start-up is flying blind. In a distressed company, these metrics become critical to stopping the bleeding and communicating with potential acquirers.

Resources & Links

Kevin on LinkedIn Prodea Systems Anousheh Ansari - Kevin's boss and the first private female space explorer

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post Two Tours of Duty: Kevin Naughton on Returning To A Troubled Start-up appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

It was a matter of when, not if. Global forces were pushing Mark Redlus' company ImageTree towards a huge opportunity. ImageTree's technology would be the gold standard for validating forest assets being used for carbon emissions off sets. Mark and his venture capital backers had already pivoted once. Listen in and find out what prevented them from pivoting a second time to save their company.

My Guest Coming out of the Univ. of Pennsylvania's Wharton School with a BS in Management, Mark jumped right into the entrepreneurial side of the technology industry. He launched Red Sector A which was acquired by CoreTech. At CoreTech he rose to become the CEO. From there he moved on to ImageTree as employee number one. After almost five years at ImageTree, Mark moved Yallingup BioEnergy where he worked on a variety of clean tech investment projects. Shifting out of clean tech, Mark moved to MemVu to become their CEO.

Most recently, Mark has joined Polaris Health Directions. Polaris Health Directions develops and markets behavioral health outcomes assessment and management systems to help deliver better health outcomes at a reduced cost. Polaris systems are designed for use by health care providers, managed care organizations, government agencies and pharmaceutical companies, and focus on addressing the impact mental health conditions have on physical health and an individual's welfare.

Mark is an avid outdoors man and spends as much time as possible snowboarding, whitewater kayaking and surf kayaking. Highlights & Take Home Lessons

Mark's company, ImageTree, was built to pursue two markets that failed to mature. First was the forestry management application. Potential customers faced a serious economic penalty if ImageTree's product showed that their prior data was significantly wrong. Better, faster and cheaper doesn't sell well if it exposes potential users' prior failings. The second target market, carbon cap and trade monitoring, assumed that long-term change mandated and enforced by government policy was certain. Mark highlights that lots of smart people believed cap and trade was a certain future. It wasn't. Entrepreneurs must understand what's often referred to as "stroke of the pen" risk. Policy makers can eliminate a markets as rapidly as they create them. Entrepreneurs must be sensitive to the pace at which their markets are ascending. If your market isn't ascending, you need the cash to be flexible and pivot. Mark emphasized that awareness of market development must inform capital raising. ImageTree took on debt prior to having a firm footing. This along with venture capital fund dynamics greatly limited ImageTree's options. On the operational front, Mark explained how he and his team underestimated the complexity of operating internationally as a small company. Finding local partners makes or breaks entrepreneurs.

As an entrepreneur, Mark leans on a group of three advisors that can objectively filter his ideas and assumptions. He believes the natural tendency is for entrepreneurs to fall in love with their ideas and businesses. Success requires objective, blunt assessment of ideas and options. With that feedback, entrepreneurs need the courage to pivot their business or abandon Resources & Links

Mark Redus on LinkedIn Email is M.Redlus [at] PolarisHealth [dot] com PolarisHealth.com

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The post Waiting For Uncle Sam: Mark Redlus on Gov't Created Markets & Capital to Pivot appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

When should you sell your venture capital backed start-up? Entrepreneur Dennis Clerke joins me to discuss the start-up CEO's critical task of managing a company's path to an exit. Dennis discusses how to monitor your company's market environment and internal investor dynamics, so that you can exit at the optimal time. We also chat about promoting robust team debate while avoiding cancerous team dysfunction.

My Guest As President of Monetization Dennis leads the content-monetization business at NetSeer, helping publishers derive greater revenue and user engagement from display and enhanced search. He also continues to work with other emerging software companies through his advisory firm DaggerBoard Advisors.

Dennis has worked with a number of software organizations on issues such as business strategy, implementation, market strategy, product development and financing. Clients include 3E Company, Alliance One, Bunkspeed, Netseer, RealGifts, Nirvanix, Captaris, SpectorSoft and TitleTrac.

Previously, he served for three years as the CEO of Alignent, a venture-backed provider of collaborative business-strategy and product-planning software, acquired by Minneapolis, MN-based Sopheon in 2007. He was a co-founder and CEO of Cardiff Software, a market-leading provider of business process management and content capture software, acquired in 2004 by Verity and now part of Autonomy.

He is on the Board of Directors/Advisors with MadCap Software, Mochila, EcoLayers, Dasko, and Pandimo. Clerke also is active with Connect, SDSIC and the University of San Diego entrepreneurial business program.

He received his MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Business and a bachelor's degree in engineering from Boston University. In his spare time, Dennis has a passion for sailing, spending time with family and enjoying the outdoors. Highlights & Take Home Lessons My conversation with Dennis focused on his experience at Alignent Software. Things got challenging when it became clear to Dennis that he was either going to need a lot more equity capital or they needed to sell Alignent. The venture capital investors were split. To make matters worse, it was clear to Dennis that his industry was beginning to consolidate. Dennis talks about two of the start-up CEO's essential job:

Monitor your industry to understand when the exit window is open. Understand the motivations and constraints of your investor syndicate

Company alignment is a great buzz phrase. Dennis shares his experience with just how important it is in reality. Debate and open dissent should be expected and is positive. Back channel dissent and unresolved conflict must be address and fast. Resources & Links

Dennis on LinkedIn NetSeer DaggerBoard Dennis' email: dclerke [at] daggerboardadvisors [dot] com

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Why a Venture Capital Podcast About Failure? From early childhood you've always heard the saying "Learn from your mistakes." In the venture capital industry you frequently hear "Fail fast" to learn and get to the right idea. Great advice. So, for this venture capital podcast I interview venture capital backed entrepreneurs about what they learned when their start-up didn't go as planned. I hope you can learn from their valuable experience.

The post Where's The Exit? Dennis Clerke on Timing Exits & Investor Alignment appeared first on Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

What is The Venture Capital Coroner's Report? Why should you listen to it? And who is Mark W King? (and why does he use his middle initial?) Great questions that I answer in Episode Zero, The Prologue. After 17 years in the venture capital industry, I felt it was time for a public forum to discuss what we've learned about entrepreneurship, start-ups, venture capital and business in general from the huge number of companies that have not ended in success. In this prologue I explain my background in the VC industry and my plans for this podcast.

My Background Since graduating from Wheaton College in 1988, I've been involved in entrepreneurial finance. The theme to my career is loaning money to entrepreneurs who on the surface didn't look like they could pay it back.

I started worked in international micro lending and urban development lending. Then I took the plunge into Venture Debt. Since 1997 I've had the privilege of working with the same core group of people. We've moved firms a few times and experienced the peaks and valleys of the venture capital cycle together. It's been a great ride.

Along the way I picked up my MBA at Kellogg/Northwestern, majoring in Entrepreneurship, Marketing and Non-profit Management. I also sat for and received the Chartered Financial Analyst charter.

Here's where you can find more info on me: LinkedIn Profile Official Ares Profile

What's up with the middle initial? Blame Sergey and Larry! If you Google Mark King you'll find the bass player for Level 42, a British Snooker player and a golf course painter. If you Google Mark W King you'll find a lawyer in Fresno, but you'll also find me peppered through out the results (including our family's ice bucket challenge video). My ego driven goal for The Venture Capital Coroner's Report is to beat out the lawyer in Fresno, but I'll need your help. Hopes, Dreams and Aspirations for This Podcast Over the years I've worked with some truly awesome venture capitalists and management teams. Sadly some of them don't see the success they'd hoped for. But I've always learned from these investors and entrepreneurs, regardless of the outcome. I've always wished others could also learn their hard-won wisdom. I discovered lots of talk about learning from failure, but very little actually published. So that's why I launched The Venture Capital Coroner's Report.

In short...I want to celebrate the courage of entrepreneurs who didn't achieve the original goal, but grew professionally and personally from the effort. You may not achieve your original goal either. I hope, however, that you will build on their experiences and your own to grow as a person and an entrepreneur. Teddy Roosevelt said it far better than I can: "It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." Please listen, comment and suggest guests. Let me know where I'm failing, so that I can get better. And remember...everybody fails, make sure you do it successfully. Subscribe With Your Favorite App

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