Funding and Building your Business

One of the most difficult challenges in business is to innovate from within a large organization.

The longer you wait to craft sound policies and processes, and effectively communicate them, the more you will eventually pay.

"The database answers the question: ‘Who is doing what in the fast-growing world of the mature workforce.’"

Far and away the most common mistake venture capitalists cop to is keeping a portfolio company founder in the CEO slot too long.

Business-plan competitions, long an academic ritual to help business-school students develop ideas and pitch investors, are becoming an increasingly popular way for business owners and would-be entrepreneurs to raise extra cash while honing their business strategy.

"Direct translations of a site are unlikely to include most commonly used search terms, resulting in a site that can be understood by a local audience but may receive little traffic if it fails to appear in search results."

It’s not meant to be exhaustive or detailed, but to just provide some of the core elements that startups usually consider when contemplating whether or not they need to hire a lawyer.

It sounds more like a gimmick than a way to start a company: set up a Web site and let visitors vote on everything from your business strategy to your management hires to the company logo.

Knowing how the game is played can be more helpful than being handed a bag of money.

Nissley, whose previous investments include Oracle Corp. [ORCL] and computer equipment maker Digital Dynamics Inc., said it was not his wife’s business acumen he valued so much as her keen judgment of the founding team members’ character, which he said is more critical than the underlying product in predicting a company’s success.