Walter Thompson

Writing a crisp summary for a board meeting requires input from multiple stakeholders and more than a little bit of research. People often treat it like an unpleasant chore, but done properly, these sessions are an opportunity for founders to hone their storytelling skills, engage their team and squeeze...

Your goal: communicate progress clearly and elicit constructive feedback Of all the things an early-stage founder has to figure out, one of the most unexpected is how to get the most from your board. But effectively leveraging your board for guidance and support is essential. The slides you use...

I celebrated a friend’s birthday with a large group a few days ago and realized how hard it is to tell who can’t carry a tune when the entire room is singing the same song. The same holds true for B2B SaaS startups: because so many are generally focused...

Most conversations around personas happen with the marketing or product teams. These groups use personas to define typical customers by their demographics, likes, values, backgrounds, goals, challenges, aspirations, etc. A persona profile includes a picture and some statements representing the person. It might include where to reach that person,...

Help! My company didn't register me in this year’s H-1B lottery Sophie Alcorn Contributor Sophie Alcorn is the founder of Alcorn Immigration Law in Silicon Valley and 2019 Global Law Experts Awards’ “Law Firm of the Year in California for Entrepreneur Immigration Services.” She connects people with the businesses and opportunities...

Blake Byrne is building a stealth mode biomanufacturing startup. A recent graduate of the University of Cambridge, he previously served on the Good Food Institute's Science & Technology team. Using microbial organisms like yeast and fungi as cell factories to produce animal proteins, Pat Brown and his early team...

Grant Easterbrook Contributor Grant Easterbrook is a fintech consultant based in Amsterdam. He also co-founded Dream Forward, which was acquired in 2020. More posts by this contributor A decade of fintech failures: 4 innovations that didn’t live up to the hype Preparing for fintech’s second decade: 4 moves your firm must make now This...

If someone said “startup” while we were playing a word association game, I’d respond with “fundraising.” (I bet you would, too.) Asking people for money is a key aspect of every founder’s journey, but Techstars Managing Director Collin Wallace says it can also “accelerate your demise.” For example, raising a...

While the past few years saw a big drive towards caring for employees, the last months have seen the pendulum swing in the other direction. The tech industry has been harrowed by layoffs and economic uncertainty — and that’s directly impacting existing employees’ morale and well-being, which in...

About 10% of startups will fail in their first year. Between years two through five, approximately 70% of companies will go under. But those figures don’t matter when you’re pitching: Investors expect to see a business plan that describes how you plan to reach profitability within 3-5 years. “While it...