Thread CEO and co-founder Brian Phillips on work and play, and having a team before an ideaYou might think that building a relationship and building a company are two difficult challenges best pursued at different times of your life. But Brian Phillips has figured out how to align both those interests. Brian, who happens to be single, is the CEO and co-founder of online dating site Thread.In this segment of "Lessons for Entrepreneurs," Brian, a former PayPal product manager and who co-founded a payment platform Groovy.com back in the late 90's, shares three pieces of advice to fellow entrepreneurs."First, do something you’re passionate about. I’m single, many of my friends are single," he said. "We’re all passionate about dating. My business and personal interests are aligned."Brian's second piece of advice is to work with people you ... [http://vator.tv/n/aa9 read more]

• 10/22/09
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Lorenzo Carver's lessons: Importance of teams, longer runways, and sticking it outIn this segment, Bambi Francisco interviewed Lorenzo Carver, a five-time entrepreneur. Lorenzo's latest startup is Liquid Scenarios, a company that makes software to help assess valuations of private companies. The number one piece of advice is to be very careful about who you're partnering and working with. "Trust that they're motivated by things you're motivated by," he said. The other piece of advice is to give yourself a long runway - longer than what you anticipate. Many times there are unexpected challenges and with time, there's more resources to achieve your goal. The third piece of advice is not to be afraid to be persistent.

• 10/3/09
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Founder of Wit Capital and pioneer of taking companies public on the Web shares his lessonsAndy Klein is the pioneer of taking companies public on the Internet. He started Spring Street Brewing Company - the most high-profile and successful direct public offering ever. I met Klein back in 1996, when he led the offering on the Web. Eventually, and here's a little-known secret, Andy wanted to create more buzz around his beer company, he decided to create a market to provide liquidity for the shares. That market became known as Wit Capital, which went public and in 1999, went on to acquire another investment bank, Soundview, in that same year.Andy is currently running his latest startup - Spotzer.Here's his advice.- You can probably do anything, but not everything. Make sure you find a team you ... [http://vator.tv/n/9ef read more]

• 8/18/09
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Smule co-founder and CEO Jeff Smith says, 'Put zero distance between the code and the customer'In this segment of Lessons Learned for entrepreneurs, Bambi Francisco interviewed Jeff Smith, co-founder of Smule, a maker of popular iPhone apps, such as the Ocarina, which recently eclipsed one million users, and Leaf Trombone to take a look. Smith was also the founder of Tumbleweed, which he brought public in 1999. BF: With all of your experience, I am sure there are a number of lessons you have learned. Please share a few pieces of advice or lessons with our community of entrepreneurs. JS: Thanks so much for having me. It's been great to watch Vator take off and be part of that. The first lesson involves team and culture. They're everything. It's going to come down to the ... [http://vator.tv/n/9c8 read more]

• 8/15/09
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Founder of Federated Media and The Industry Standard shares lessons as an entrepreneurJohn Battelle, CEO and founder of Federated Media, a leading advertising network, talks to Bambi Francisco about his experience as an entrepreneur and shares a few lessons he learned after more than 15 years building media businesses. In the Internet boom years, Battelle founded The Industry Standard, a leading magazine about innovation and technology. In this interview, Battelle looked back at those years and said the biggest mistake was not leaving soon enough. His experience is something many entrepreneurs have gone through. They hang on well beyond their time. "I got so caught up with the fact that I built this myself," he said. "I should have left." Battelle, who also authored "The Search," offers up other advise as well, ... [http://vator.tv/n/968 read more]

• 7/24/09
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Serial entrepreneur learns that startups need to build based on the team and avoid shiny objectsIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Tom Gruber, co-founder and CTO of Siri.BF: You have had a lot of experience as an entrepreneur.This is your third company that you've co-founded so talk about how you are bringing those experiences to your current position.TG: One of the biggest things I've learned this year is despite the shiny objects, like the technology that gets everyone excited, it will always come back to how you are impacting someone's life. Are you actually changing the way they live or work? It seems so obvious yet so frequently forgotten over and over again. At Intraspect, we did a knowledge-management system for corporations, a brain for corporations. Everyone was excited about the search ... [http://vator.tv/n/91e read more]

• 7/1/09
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'You just keep failing enough, and not giving up.""Vision is great, especially when you can do it with 20/20 hindsight," said entrepreneur-turned-venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, who last night received a Visionary Award, an honor bestowed annually to industry leaders who've pioneered innovation. The award was given by the SDForum, a leading Silicon Valley non-profit organization. Khosla, whom I met while he was a partner at blue-chip venture firm Kleiner Perkins, co-founded Sun Microsystems back in the 80's, upon graudating Standford University. In 2004, Khosla founded Khosla Ventures.

• 6/26/09
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Visuvi CEO Chris Boone on how an invesment flopped due to avariceIn this segment of Lessons Learned for entrepreneurs, Bambi Francisco interviewed Chris Boone, founder and CEO of Visuvi, a an image based search engine with patent pending technology in “content based image recognition.”BF: You have been an investment banker since your professional career and you moved over to become a CEO of a startup company about one years old. So, you probably have a lot of interesting lessons that you've learned now that you're in operations. Can you share three pieces of advice being an entrepreneur?CB: First and foremost you have to solve a significant market problem so necessity is the mother of all inventions and creations. The first thing you have to do is to make certain that whatever ... [http://vator.tv/n/904 read more]

• 6/25/09
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Vook founder Brad Inman's advice and how a journalist can become a CEO

• 6/23/09
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Speed is everything; Killer teams will be the ones to execute; Don't be afraid to failIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviews Dennis Fong, founder of Raptr, a social platform where people can play games. Fong founded four companies, after launching his entrepreneurial career at 18 years old. Notably, Fong founded gaming company Xfire.com, which was sold to Viacom for $102 million in 2006. Raptr is an extension of Xfire, according to Fong. Raprt is Fong's attempt to tie the social graph on th social networks with the social networks of traditionalgames, like World of Warcraft.Here are his lessons and advice to entrepreneurs (slightly edited).DF: No. 1 would be speed is everything. I have this golden rule which is every day when a deal or partnership does not close, there's a 10% less ... [http://vator.tv/n/848 read more]

• 6/22/09
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Randy Adams on how startups are like small children that need nurturingIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Randy Adams, CEO of SearchMe, a site that turns browsing the Web into the same experience as flipping through a magazine. Adams, who raised $43 million in funding for SearchMe, founded six companies. Adams founded Emerald City Software, which was sold to Adobe, Appsoft (NeXT software), which was shut down, Internet Shopping Network, which was sold to Home Shopping Network, Navitel, which was sold to Spyglass, Inc. and AuctionDrop, which was sold to

• 6/13/09
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Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy: It's uncommon that the founding idea is right on the moneyIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviewed Joe Kennedy, CEO of Pandora,

• 6/2/09
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LinkedIn founder and CEO shares his lessons and advice to entrepreneursAt TiEcon held in Santa Clara, Calif. earlier this month, I didn't stand when LinkedIn founder and CEO Reid Hoffman's interviewer asked for those in the audience born outside the United States to stand, even though I was born in the Philippines. Given the vast majority of the audience stood up, I figured the point was made. That is that innovation relies heavily on U.S. transplants. And, that the current immigration laws are impeding the ability of startups to thrive. Hoffman is a big proponent of changing the immigration laws.I saw Hoffman after his keynote. You may have caught the first part of our interview, in which he talks about the business of LinkedIn.

• 5/28/09
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Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures says keep expectations low, and accept failureEuropean entrepreneurs have a tough time accepting failure. That's what I learned while attending the Innovate!Europe conference, held in Zaragoza, Spain recently. One dominant and recurring theme was the idea that failure was OK as an entrepreneur and that European entrepreneurs should realize that it's a positive trait on the road to one day being successful.

• 5/26/09
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Why CEOs and founders need to be salesmen and learn how to sell, sell, sell In this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco sit downs with serial entrepreneur David Sifry, founder and CEO of Offbeat Guides. Sifry also founded four other startups, including Technorati, which he was at the helm of for five years. BF: David, you've started five companies, and in 17 years, you've raised $110 million in venture financing. What are your three pieces of advice to entrepreneurs?

• 5/22/09
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Yoav Leitersdorf of YL Ventures says keep expectations low, and accept failureEuropean entrepreneurs have a tough time accepting failure. That's what I learned while attending the Innovate!Europe conference, held in Zaragoza, Spain recently. One dominant and recurring theme was the idea that failure was OK as an entrepreneur and that European entrepreneurs should realize that it's a positive trait on the road to one day being successful.

• 5/19/09
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Former MySQL CEO Marten Mikos on faith over optimism Marten Mickos was brought into MySQL when the open-source icon had 12 people in 2001. He grew the company to over 400 people and eventually sold the company to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in January 2008.In this segment, Mickos advises entrepreneurs to seek wisdom in the words of Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking American prisoner in the Hanoi prisoner of war camp from 1965 to 1973, who through

• 5/16/09
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Entrepreneur Ali Pincus says focus, stay motivated, and always ask questions from expertsIn this segment of Lessons Learned for Entrepreneurs, Alison Gelb Pincus, co-founder of One Kings Lane, an online shopping destination which features world-renowned decor for the home, shares her lessons as an entrepreneur with Meliza Solan.

• 5/14/09
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Former MySQL CEO Marten Mikos on faith over optimism Marten Mickos was brought into MySQL when the open-source icon had 12 people in 2001. He grew the company to over 400 people and eventually sold the company to Sun Microsystems for $1 billion in January 2008.In this segment, Mickos advises entrepreneurs to seek wisdom in the words of Admiral Jim Stockdale, the highest-ranking American prisoner in the Hanoi prisoner of war camp from 1965 to 1973, who through

• 5/12/09
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Speed is everything; Most ideas are a dime a dozen; If you're not failing, you're not taking risksIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviews Dennis Fong, founder of Raptr, a social platform where people can play games. Fong also started gaming company Xfire, which was sold to Viacom for $102 million in 2006.

• 5/6/09
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Founder of social gaming powerhouse Zynga talks about his first foray into social networkingThis is a continuation of my "Lessons Learned" interview with Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga, the largest social gaming company and publisher of the popular Texas Hold'Empoker game on social networks. Prior to Zynga, Pincus founded Tribe, a social network, back in 2003. Its technology was sold to Cisco Systems in 2007.In this interview, Pincus talks about why he considers Tribe a failure and the lessons learned he brought over to Zynga. Here's an edited version of the interview.MP: I would consider Tribe a failure from an investor standpoint. So, lessons learned from Tribe - No. 1, especially if you’re going after consumer Internet, pick the macro and test continually to get the metrics that work. One lesson was that ... [http://vator.tv/n/828 read more]

• 5/6/09
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Venture Capitalist Ken Sawyer says communicate, play offense, and be a salesmanIn this segment of Lessons Learned for entrepreneurs, Bambi Francisco asks Ken Sawyer to share three pieces of advice for entrepreneurs who are struggling with building their business during the economic downturn. KS: The first thing I would say is over communicate. I think in this period of time, we have to recognize that customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders, and venture capitalists all want to learn about what's going on. Communication can be very important during these tough times and I think the fact that our suppliers are struggling, our customers are struggling, and often our venture capitalists are struggling for exits. The communication that a company and a CEO can do for its employee base and its investor base is ... [http://vator.tv/n/831 read more]

• 5/6/09
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Xobni co-founder Matt Brezina tells Vator.tv's Bambi Francisco that the lessons he's learned as a first-time entrepreneur have to do with choosing the right people -- from high-powered venture capitalist Vinod Khosla to the company's office manager -- and knowing how to delegate.

• 4/20/09
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Mashable founder and CEO Pete Cashmore talks with passion, conviction and frankness about being an entrepreneur in this interview with Vator.tv's Bambi Francisco.

• 4/20/09
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Unlike the majority of angel networks, Keiretsu Forum charges entrepreneurs to pitch once they are screened.

• 4/20/09
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At Vator.tv, we value the lessons learned by the many entrepreneurs who are part of the Vator.tv community. In this video, Kevin Surace, founder and CEO of Serious Materials, offers up his lessons he's learned as an entrepreneur about five times over. His words are worth considering, since he appears to be doing something right. Serious Materials is one of the few companies addressing the $12 billion market for drywall. Now while that doesn't sound sexy, there is a significant opportunity to provide new forms of eco-friendly produts, such as drywall, to the manufacturing sector. Apparently, according to Surace, manufacturing accounts for 33% of the carbon emissions created. Serious Materials, which is a contestant in the Going Green/Vator contest, is ... [http://vator.tv/n/3e read more]

• 4/20/09
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CEO Stokols of online introductory site says he's slowing it down a bit to wait for a recoveryIt remains a pretty crappy economic environment out there. More than 400 companies of the S&P 500 Index have reported results for the third quarter. All told, earnings per share are on track to fall close to 14% from last year, making this the five straight quarter of declines. To this end, startups remain prudent.Stephen Stokols, CEO of WooMe, is one of those entrepreneurs who's been through a downturn before. He's not going to make the mistake of burning too much cash before the market improves to possibly raise another round or exit."We raised $12.5 million at a Series B, and that money was going to take us 18 months," he said. "We're cutting costs and slowing down a bit ... [http://vator.tv/n/504 read more]

• 4/20/09
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Building a better mousetrap often takes longer than originally anticipatedIn this segment of Lessons Learned, Bambi Francisco interviews Tim Musgrove, CEO and founder of TextDigger, a company developing advanced semantic solutions for the Web, including hosted semantic search, automated content tagging and topic generation, and optimized keyword generation.The San Jose, Cali-based startup was founded by a group of former CNET employees and executives who developed patented linguistic technologies that, today, are used to enhance the content on CNet. BF: You have been an entrepreneur since 1999 when you started SmartShop and then you sold it to CNet in 2002. So you definitely went through the boom and the bust. What was your biggest lesson you learned through that experience?

• 4/20/09
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