Living in the Problem Space - Advice for Entrepreneurs
Welcome to the WKI Blog
Get Free Advice in your Inbox!
The Law of the Ladder
As you might guess, it’s my passion to search out models and frameworks that can make a lasting impact on early stage innovators. As someone who’s lived the creative, energy-charged, dynamic ride of being on the startup journey, I learned early on the importance of...
Pitch Prep Pointers
Thanks to everyone who jumped on the pitch prep discussion we kicked off recently. I’m glad it struck a chord with you. I promised to share a few others, so here they are…. Thank you again for being such a supportive community. Please feel free to share these and...
5 Tips for Pitching
Here at WKI, we love to pitch and catch. That is to say, we spend a lot of time looking at and listening to pitches – which had us thinking it would be fun to share some of our tips and takeaways for a great pitch. The difference with these is that they aren’t your...
Mentoring by Design
In recognition of National Mentoring Month, I would like to acknowledge the important work being done by our WKI Certified Coaches who dedicate themselves to mentoring and coaching innovators to navigate the path forward to turn their idea into a business with...
Turning Innovators into Founders
First, let me give credit for the title of this post — our customer, Tech Fort Worth, uses this as its mantra. I think it’s a powerful statement. It captures the work we do to help people with ideas turn those ideas into business value, and throughout this process,...
Summer, Sunscreen and Supergoop!
Having spent my career in science and tech, I’m the first to admit I am a novice in the consumer goods space -- there’s an emotional side to pitching and selling these products that I’ve never experienced. Having said this, I’m always pleasantly surprised to see many...
The Importance of Startup Financials
Time and time again, I see pitches and information packets about startup investment opportunities with a glaring weakness – the lack of viable, credible and detailed financial information. I don’t get it. With innovations, technologies and company concepts into which...
Learning How The Game Is Played
As founders start out on their journey, there’s a lot of balls to juggle for sure. Customers, product, competitive differentiator, access to capital, and the list continues. An important one that doesn’t get talked about enough is the Path to Market - how will you...
A Defining Moment for Startups: So What’s the Problem?
When I reflect back to my tech startup days when we were on the napkin and starting out, I am reminded (and sometimes a little haunted LOL) by our inability to articulate the business problem we were proposing to solve. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that the...
What “No” Sounds Like
Talking to another seed investor recently, we both got something of a chuckle when discussing a startup that had approached each of us separately. The chuckle was all about this team’s deaf ear to what was really being said to them. The word “No” comes out in a...
Company Building Lessons Learned from Making Lattes!
Since the pandemic began, I’ve learned a lot about brewing a great latte. But that didn’t stop me from travelling to my local Starbucks every day for a much-needed escape even if it was only at the drive-thru. So, you can imagine my surprise when I learned Starbucks...
