You don’t have to be actively preparing to sell your company — but you should have the groundwork in place if and when you want to sell. Last week I had the chance to spend time with 14 service-based businesses, all with meaningful revenue and all companies with longevity. The…

Is it time to sell your company? Preparing to exit your startup can be an emotional process, filled with ups and downs — and that’s even before you hire a banker! That’s why I’ve joined my former teammate at Techstars, Jessica Ford, the Director and publisher of Startup Digest to…

This story was originally posted on www.dkparker.com. I’m an American Entrepreneur that supports founders and Startup Ecosystem Builders. I have been fortunate to travel to some amazing places in my life. I never take it for granted. …

For years I’ve been directing founders to the Guy Kawasaki 10 20 30 Slides blog post. It’s a great post and very relevant if you have an idea vs. a company you want to communicate, or if you’re early in the pitching process or preparing for an early-stage pitch contest…

Originally Posted on DKParker.com A Startup Board of Directors or Advisory Board is very different than a board of directors for a public company or a mature company. We’re trying to get you to scale, we’re not worried about public stock prices yet. I joined my first outside Board in…

(Originally published on DKParker.com/blog) How do investors evaluate your startup company? Let me take some of the mystery out of the process and tell you one approach. It’s not the only approach and different investors will put different weighting on different parts of your company. …

This post originally posted on DKParker.com A lot of startup founders work hard on getting their product ready to launch before understanding the economics of marketing. Specifically, how to acquire customers at reasonable economics. Sometimes that topic is met with a genuine head tilt and quizzical look. …

I’ve never been great about New Year’s Resolutions — but I’m a fan of goals. Goals can be a challenge because we set unrealistic goals at this time of year and miss them early. So while we feel defeated, we end up giving up on the bigger picture, the reason…

After fiddling with wireframes, you’ve done your customer development. using the PowerPoint demo. People like your idea — CHECK! You can go past GO! But you don’t get to collect $200, yet. You have more work to do. You’ve drafted the specification. Pages, bullets, and versions are numbered. You’ve ruthlessly…