This Week’s Best Reading
The Difference Between Big Markets and Great Markets
The best investors and entrepreneurs often look for great markets rather than great companies. In fact, “you’re better off backing a bad team in a great market than a great team in a bad market.” Rob Go from Nextview Ventures gives us 5 tips for evaluating great markets here.
A Simple Way to Validate Your Startup Idea
“If you built this thing, who would buy it?” That’s the question Justin Jackson urges entrepreneurs to ask in this piece, written for founders but just as valid for investors trying to evaluate early-stage investments. Read it here.
Video: Good Ideas that Looked Like Bad Ideas
A great watch. Assuming that large companies, governments and scientists are already working on the good ideas that look like good ideas, Chris Dixon explains how entrepreneurs and start-ups, by definition, work on the leftovers – good ideas that look like bad ideas. But these can, and often have, changed the world. Watch the video here (about 23 minutes).
Nasdaq Launches Private Market for Trading Pre-IPO Shares
In a clear show of private equity investing’s gathering mainstream momentum, Nasdaq has teamed with SharesPost to act as an exchange for secondary stock transactions in pre-IPO companies. This allows accredited investors to buy shares in later-stage private companies, while giving the companies another avenue for capital raising and their employees an opportunity to sell their shares for short-term liquidity. Read more here.
How I Funded My Company with Credit Cards (And Almost Failed)
Today, Airbnb is a huge success story, but after running out of money in their early days, they pulled themselves out of the hole “bootstrapping by credit card”. In this piece, Philib Lindblom of 1000Designers tells how he almost lost everything employing the same tactic. It’s a powerful look behind the scenes of a start-up, and a reminder of how equity crowdfunding puts you in a position to help smart entrepreneurs bring their ideas to life. Read it here.
