Month: December 2019

Ready to give up? Just wait a second.

Startups — The Ultimate Video Game It’s the end of the year — end of a decade to be exact — and that’s the time when many Founders find themselves asking the hardest question that they’ll ever face — should I just give up on my startup? After running four startups, managing teams, and seeing …

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Top 5 FAQs from 2019 Entrepreneurs

Looking back on 2019, I’ve had the privilege of speaking with and advising many different entrepreneurs. I’ve compiled my list of the top 5 most frequently asked questions asked by founders:  1. Do you think this is a “good” business idea?  What’s interesting, is that the most frequently asked question of “Do you think this …

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Gratitude Positive Thinking Entrepreneur Reagan Pollack

How Great Advice Leads to Inaction (and how to fix it)

What’s the power of a thought?  Everywhere we turn we hear the advice, recommendations, opinions and suggestions of others — imploring us to focus harder, try with more gusto, defy the odds stacked against us, build the resolve to never give up — good advice we can usually all agree is needed to accomplish any …

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Ben Horowitz, John Zimmer, A16Z, Reagan Pollack, Commonwealth Club of Silicon Valley

Culture Through Action

What exactly is corporate culture? Can we see it? Does it emanate from a business plan, an un-written code of ethics, or a placard on the wall? Last night we got to sit in on a fireside chat with Ben Horowitz (VC, Andreessen Horowitz​) and John Zimmer (Co-founder, Lyft) to discuss culture, and moreover, the …

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Reagan Pollack

1 month ago

Reagan Pollack
In 2005 while attending Babson College business school, I set out to launch my first internet startup. The vision was to build a platform (back then it was called a web portal) that would connect the music industry and expedite artist discovery (A&R), facilitate new business deals, and bridge the fragmented music business ecosystem. The goal was large, but in order to accomplish it, without prior experience nor significant connections, I broke the mission down into manageable tasks and chunks. This not only helped lay the foundation but also helped me to prioritize which elements would be needed first and subsequently.At graduation, I headed back to Silicon Valley and began my adventure full steam by opening an office, raising capital, and hiring my first ten team members. With a business plan in hand, I had a clear roadmap from an operational and financial perspective, and by spending significant time constructing the website wire-frames, it helped me to better stress test my assumptions with real-world pre-customer feedback. While most of the business plan didn’t materialize the way I had envisioned, it did help me greatly to strengthen my resolve for the vision and gain confidence that the end goal was material. I implore founders today to spend a few weeks writing down their vision and breaking into daily tasks, and the rank them in order of importance - ask yourself “if this comes first, does this unlock value next?” “If this comes next, does this expedite the next phase on my list?” The best (fastest to get to market and grow) entrepreneurs think in phases and are incredible at prioritizing tasks to reach the next tranche of milestones. Being in a startup can be dizzying - there a dozens of potential features to build, hundreds of people to pitch, and time is your enemy. Practicing prioritization - the ability to truly rank each activity by its weight (value) to drive actual traction - will ultimately position your business to win cost efficiently and market effectively. #nostartupleftbehind #entrepreneur #startups #entrepreneurship #founderstory ... See MoreSee Less
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