Brizzly founder Jason Shellen on nearly running out of cash before being snapped up It's often said that a company that can survive a downturn is one that will thrive or have a good exit in an upturn. In the case of Blogger, the blog publishing platform sold to Google, it was just that. The startup had nearly run out of cash right after the Internet bubble burst, struggling to bring in new funds or revenue before the search giant came along and snapped it up.The lesson? Don't give up on your company even if you're about to go under. And, be very creative and frugal and find a way to bring in revenue. Essentially, create your opportunities by surviving.

• 12/18/09
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Interview with long tail expert Adam Boyden, President ConduitReena A Jadhav interviews Adam Boyden, President of Conduit which has crossed 200,000 long tail publishers and successfully monetized their customers in

• 12/13/09
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Angel investor Aydin Senkut's advice: It's the team, stupid, and the virtues of iterating quicklyI've often heard that finding the right team members requires the same effort as finding a spouse. After all, you're going to work with them day in and day out. And, many startups fail because of people and their inability to get along.When you're as prolific as Aydin Senkut, an early-Google-employee-turned angel investor who's investments are spread across some 40 startups, it's critical to look for the right team magic. "A good team is one you can take to the bank," he said. In this segment of "Lessons Learned," Aydin - whose portfolio consists of some well-known consumer Internet companies, such as Mint, which was recently sold to Intuit for $170 million, Aardvark, Disqus, Dogster, BrightRoll and Rapleaf - said ... [http://vator.tv/n/c20 read more]

• 12/10/09
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Liaise founder Sidney Minassian's advice to entrepreneursWhat do you do if you live in Australia and have a great startup idea and can't get much traction? Move to the U.S. and work like crazy to launch at Demo. That's what Sidney Minassian, founder and CEO of Liaise,

• 12/2/09
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Revenue models that work and monetization tips for entrepreneurs.Reena Jadhav interviews Adam Boyden, President of Conduit on monetization tips. Conduit has exploded over the last few years and now supports over 200,000 publishers and more than 60 million active users. But that's not the interesting part. What's fascinating is that they are effectively monetizing their user base and generating significant revenues. I sat down with Adam Boyden, President of Conduit, to elicit his secrets to monetization.

• 11/29/09
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Bonobos co-founder Andy Dunn on building a business with a former roommate, and other lessons/adviceAndy Dunn, co-founded pants designer and retailer Bonobos in 2007 with his former Stanford Business School roommate Brian Spaly. So far, so good. The two are making a killing at their new venture.But it's not been all that easy."My co-founder and I have highly overlapping skill sets," said Andy, in this segment of "Lessons for Entrepreneurs." Working together has been an “enormous challenge," he added. Andy's advice to former roommates or friends thinking about working together is this: Think about your relative contribution and the architecture of your business relationships. "It's critical." Fortunately, the two have been able to preserve the friendship, he said.

• 11/14/09
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Foundation Capital's Charles Moldow offers advice to entrepreneursBefore Charles Moldow became a general partner at Foundation Capital, he spent more than a decade as an entrepreneur. He wrote the original business plan for AtHome, a high-speed Internet access comapny, which eventually became ExciteAtHome. He also worked at TellMe, which was sold to Microsoft. Charles also led investments in roughly 10 startups, including Xoopit, Powerset, Weblistic and AdWhirl. This is his advice to entrepreneurs.- Be relentless. The management team at TellMe once put a guy in first class on an airplane to Japan just to sit down to a prospective client. Think out of the box and be relentless. - Don’t compromise with a big idea. Time is one of your most valuable assets. Wait and find a ... [http://vator.tv/n/af7 read more]

• 10/29/09
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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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