Seth Elliott

Link: http://www.google.com/profiles/sethe29

Link: http://www.unchained-entrepreneur.com

Feed: Unchained Entrepreneur - Business Advice

• Guide to Angel Investor Organizations and Groups | 12/30/2010

  This Guide to Angel Investing Organizations is a detailed listing of more than 225 angel investor groups throughout the United States and Canada – as well as several international organizations. Although this guide is substantial, it does not purport to be fully comprehensive. Some of the information herein may be incorrect, and there may be [...]

• Nice Assets! | 12/14/2010

  Continuing with our series on financial statements, today we are going to examine the Balance Sheet in more detail. Let’s evaluate the “left-hand” side of the Balance Sheet – Assets. Today, we’ll review the specific categories of Assets and examine some of these classifications in more detail. Cash is clearly the most liquid of assets. [...]

• For Want of a Nail . . . | 12/06/2010

  This article was first published as “For Want of a Nail . . .” on Technorati For want of a nail the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe the horse was lost. For want of a horse the rider was lost. For want of a rider the battle was lost. For want of [...]

• Working Smart vs. Hard | 10/19/2010

  This article was first published as “Smart vs. Hard” on Technorati Woody Allen famously said, “Ninety percent of success is just showing up.” The fact is, in a startup environment, you have to show up A LOT. Grinding out 12-plus-hour days is certainly a hallmark (if not a badge of honor) for many successful startups. [...]

• Bear Traps: Attitudes to Kill Your Startup | 10/12/2010

  Lack of self-confidence, or belief in your product/solution, can kill your startups chances. However, this risk characteristic is one that I rarely encounter amongst startups. Most entrepreneurs have a healthy dose of confidence – perhaps bordering on arrogance. In fact, this other extreme can be just as dangerous to startup success. Over-confidence in your abilities, [...]

• The Balance Sheet | 10/07/2010

  The balance sheet is a snapshot of the financial condition of a company. Essentially, it reveals – at a set moment in time – what the company owns or possesses (assets), what the company owes (liabilities) and what the company is worth “on paper” (equity). Balance sheet items can be evaluated in various ways, but [...]

• Income Statement Hide and Seek | 09/28/2010

  Before we finish with our examination of the Income Statement, it’s worth addressing some of the “games” that can be (and have been) played in reporting. Why is this important? At some point, you will likely be comparing your company to others in the industry for the purposes of analysis and valuation. Understanding some of [...]

• Advisory Board Advice | 09/23/2010

  When sitting through entrepreneurs’ presentations, I often find myself cringing when the “Advisory Board” slide makes its appearance. Advisory Boards have been in vogue for some time. In the “go-go” years of the first internet bubble, every company had such a group filled with household names. Even today, I find many startups use advisory boards [...]

• My EBITDA is Bigger Than Yours . . . | 09/21/2010

  Venture Capitalists, Investment Bankers and related professionals love to sprinkle their conversation with esoteric terms – most notably the fabled EBITDA and EBIT. Let’s examine the calculation of these items and, more importantly, why they are used. EBITDA stands for Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization. Although this can be calculated from the Net [...]

• The Viral Marketing Fallacy | 09/16/2010

  More often than not, I find that business plans that are presented to me are woefully inadequate when it comes to the Go To Market section. We’ll explore Go To Market planning and needs in more detail in a future post. Today I want to address the “strategy” that many entrepreneurs expound when I draw [...]