Posts in Business
How To Raise Money : Step 1 of 10 - Preparing for an Investor Pitch
How To Raise Money : Step 1 of 10 - Preparing for an Investor Pitch

Note: i) this post was transcribed from this video, and ii) This post is the first in a series where I go into detail on each of the 10 steps in my 10 step framework for raising investor money for a startup. To read a summary of the entire framework click here. 

Hey guys, what's up? Today I'm going to talk a bit about fundraising. I'm actually going to go through the 10 step process to raise money for a startup that I used when I was running Kindara.  I used this same method to raise a friends and family round, a bunch of angel rounds, and a venture round. I'm going to go through it super quick because I get a lot of questions about this in my coaching and I just want to lay out a framework that you guys can use to go step by step by step until you have money in the bank. So let's go.

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Fundraising, Business, Start-ups, TacticsWill Sacksfundraising, investors, angels, vcs, how to raise money, business angels, investor pitch
How To Figure Out What To Do With Your Life In 5 Minutes
How To Figure Out What To Do With Your Life In 5 Minutes

Wondering what you're supposed to do with your life? Here's a process I came up with to figure it out in less than 5 minutes. Let's do this!

First a few assumptions:

Assumption 1: this process assumes fulfillment is what we're aiming for. Many people confuse achievement with fulfillment, but remember: fulfillment means achieving those things that are inherently meaningful to you, as opposed to chasing after things like money or fame that our culture tells us will 'bring us happiness'.  Blind chasing of achievement is a dead end. Most successful people hit this dead end at some point in life and it's a shocker. Happiness is a journey, not a destination, and fulfillment and meaning are what bring joy to life.

Assumption 2: this process assumes that you want to live a life in integrity with your values. Not society's values, your values. Many people have never taken the time to see the difference.

And Assumption 3: this process assumes that relationships (and the experiences of being in them) comprise one of the most rewarding and fulfilling aspects of being human.

Ok if you agree with me so far, here's how to figure out what to do with your life in a couple minutes:

Step 1. Define your values. These are the things you want more of in the world.

These can be qualities like connection, or fun, or things that interact with humans like robots, or oratory, or music. As long as they are things you value...

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Design, Business, Inner GameWill Sacksself development, alignment, values, tribe
When Bad UX Signals Massive Opportunity

Every once in a while I discover a business that is succeeding despite terrible visual and user experience design.

This is a real anomaly these days, because over the last decade as engineering and manufacturing have become commodities, design has emerged as the key differentiator for breakout products.

Pretty much these days, you need awesome design to win...

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Business, DesignWill SacksUX, business, design
Want To Get More Done? Take a Vacation.
Want To Get More Done? Take a Vacation.

The word recreation means "activity done for enjoyment when not working" but I prefer to think of recreation in another way by deconstructing the word itself: re-creation can be seen as activities that we use to re-create ourselves.  Taken this way, recreation is when we stop the action, taking ourselves apart, throw out the things we no longer need or that are no longer serving us, and put ourselves back together again using only the parts we want to keep.

Without recreation, there's no opportunity for sub-performing thoughts, frameworks, strategies, or relationships to get off the bus, so they just hang-on and continue bringing us down. Recreation is like spring cleaning for our mind, body and soul. Without it, our minds-eye view

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Inner Game, Business, Behavior Change, Personal, Tactics, Time ManagementWill Sacks
Time Management Hacks Vol. 1

Two weeks ago I had a call with Ben Rubin, an adviser and friend who has been helping us through the fundraising process at Kindara. We talked about time management and then I had a long-ass Friday where it seemed like I didn't get much done. The next Monday morning I decided to start tracking what I was spending my time on in minute detail. I made a google spreadsheet and added in each block of time and what I was doing  during that block. This has proved extremely valuable. It has allowed me to:

  1. See how many hours per week I was working (around 55 which is too much),
  2. See why certain things are not moving as fast as I'd like them to be moving at Kindara, and
  3. Become very aware of what I was spending my time on, thus improving my choice of activities and productivity at those activities.
  4. Develop a mental map of which activities I enjoy (making spreadsheets!) and which activities I hate (damn you email!), and
  5. Correlate my overall sense of well-being and happiness to what I spend my time doing, or in other words, answer the question: what should I do right now to feel a sense of accomplishment today, next week and next year?

Super valuable stuff. Here are my results breakdown from Week 1...

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Business, Staying Organized, Time ManagementWill Sacks