There are several reasons why founders might not embrace venture financing (venture debt) to get their product created and to build the company. Here are some of the most common: Lack of understanding: Venture capital gets all the fanfare, so venture debt is less well-known and understood. Venture debt sits…

Suppose you go to school to be a dentist or a veterinarian, as another example, when you graduate. In that case, banks will finance the office and equipment needed to serve customers, spreading the financial investment over time and allowing for business building to occur as the equipment is being…

OpenAI’s ChatGPT is the latest platform for startups to build products on top of, but certainly not the first. Salesforce, NetSuite, and others get built upon and extended by others. The case can be made that Apple and Google stores are the preeminent platforms facilitating people to build products and…

During challenging macroeconomic conditions like we are experiencing with inflation, high interest rates, and a sluggish stock market, how can consumer spending still be holding up well? We entered into a new era of social media driving the consumer economy. There is a lot of talk about how bad social…

There is much buzz about regulatory capture after Bill Gurley’s talk at the All In Summit. Bill makes several excellent points and highlights examples of regulatory capture that made many cringe. Here’s the rub, though: practically every founder and investor would like to be part of a company that becomes…

Almost everyone working on a strategy for an organization is striving to quantify the strategy in a strategic plan. Strategic plans typically vary from 1–5 years, and five is far too long. However, a shift should occur from strategic plans to strategic responsiveness and action. Strategic action calls for the…

Crafts have an evolution. Product is no different. With that said, not all the phases of evolution are beneficial. Sometimes, we realize we need something different while still desire a way to wrap our minds and work around an approach. First, product was primarily developer-driven. What the engineers said was…

In my last post about AI, I wrote about how many implementations will be organizationally proprietary. Much of the value captured for organizations will be in their ability to leverage AI specifically for themselves and with their data. In addition to AI being proprietary, it will also be process specific. …

I’ve started to think more about this in recent weeks. At AWH, I am a partner in digital innovation, and through my startup investing and advising, I see disruption by both types of people. Both have pros and cons, but ultimately, one is better positioned to succeed. Pros and cons…