Your Unfair Competitive Advantage
While speaking recently at the monthly meeting of Team Ivy here in Atlanta, I witnessed a rather unique way of introducing yourself to others. As part of the opening of the meeting, all of the attendees took turns giving their 2 minute personal pitch. As part of that pitch, they included a statement about their personal “unfair competitive advantage.”
I began thinking about how this ties into entrepreneurship at the early stage. Establishing and understanding your unfair competitive advantage early on gives you, well, an advantage! Read more »
One of the most useful skills as an entrepreneur is number crunching. If there is one thing about numbers that I’ve learned over the years, it is that I can make them sing whatever song I deem fit. Numbers are like rules - they are meant to be pushed.
There has been quite a bit of buzz lately about Web 2.0 startups, and the importance (or not) of having a formal business plan in place. The whole Paul Graham, YCombinator, Kiko failure has brought all of this to the forefront. Is business planning important? You bet.
I have decided to start a new series here on the blog that will focus on providing tactical tips for entrepreneurs putting together business plans, financial spreadsheets, Powerpoint presentations, etc. There are many holy grails of entrepreneurship to be found in your “document set.” My aim here is to help you differentiate yourself “smartly” as it were. In this installment, I’ll share a really cool way to “serialize” your business plan for a particular investor.
