On 12.16.10, In Startups, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet Inventions are hard to come up with. If there was a method to find them, it would be patented. Many people have heard the story of how the Mac user interface was born: Steve Jobs toured Xerox PARC and was shown some basic window-based computer. It was a short demo. When he went home, [...]
On 10.15.10, In Co-Founders, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet I just responded to that question on Quora, and since many people ask me the same question during co-founders meetups, I might as well post my answer here once and for all. Q: I just met someone who looks like a potential co-founder for me. What should I ask to tell if he is [...]
On 09.15.10, In Silicon Valley, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet Last night was the Paris Founder Conference (more on that in another post, but if you can’t wait to hear about it, you can read TechCrunch France’s coverage of it here). A frequent topic of conversation came up: the misunderstood entrepreneur. When you start a startup, even your own family doesn’t understand why you [...]
On 08.26.10, In Founder Conference, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet Possibly the most popular part of the Founder Conference this year was the live pitch feedback, a workshop run by Adeo Ressi. We actually extended its allocated time by 20 minutes because it was so popular. The rules are simple: you give your best elevator pitch, in less than 1 minute, as if you [...]
On 08.24.10, In Founder Conference, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet I’m posting the videos of the Founder Conference here on my blog until we revamp the Founder Conference website… By the way, if you want to be the first one to know about the next Founder Conference, there is a sign-up form on the right. Here is my favorite excerpt of the panel on [...]
On 08.20.10, In Founder Conference, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet I’m posting the videos of the Founder Conference here on my blog until we revamp the Founder Conference website… By the way, if you want to be the first one to know about the next Founder Conference, there is a sign-up form on the right. Should you join an incubator such as Y-Combinator, the [...]
On 07.14.10, In Startups, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet Steve Jobs. Guy Kawasaki. Paul Graham. They draw crowds every time they speak at a conference. When I put together the Founder Conference (August 17th in Silicon Valley, in case you haven’t heard yet), securing a line-up of great speakers was very important. I am trying to help as many aspiring entrepreneurs build the best startups [...]
On 06.03.10, In Startups, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet There are lots of myths and dreams attached to starting a company. Will you be the next Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg? Will you negotiate million dollars rounds of financing with cool VCs? This is what starting a company really means: e-mailing 100 strangers a day, every day. For the foreseeable future. That’s it. [...]
On 05.04.10, In Startups, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet I was on the Paris subway, returning from one of the first sessions of the Founder Institute there. Sitting next to me was one of the founders. Something was bothering him. He finally asked: “why do you put so much emphasis on market size? The team, and surely other aspects must be equally important [...]
On 04.22.10, In Co-Founders, by Alain Raynaud
Tweet I love advising early-stage startups. A question I get frequently is “how to formalize bringing a co-founder on board.” I could write a book on the topic, but it’s really much simpler than that. Here’s how you do it in one tweet: @joe I expect this co-founder position to be worth ~30% equity. My [...]
