Even though the entrepreneurial ecosystem of the DC area is nothing like Silicon Valley or Boston, it nonetheless has an excellent sence of community and collaboration.  We need to keep it going...

As I am have been evaluating ideas for my next company in the past few months, I have been pleasantly surprised by the willingness of fellow entrepreneurs in the DC area to help out.  I for one have always had that philosophy -- help out your colleagues, friends, and other entrepreneurs because it is the decent thing to do.  That might mean being a sounding board for ideas, helping beta test software, connecting companies to funding, or helping people find talent for their growing companies. 

Recently, a member of the Amplifier Network emailed me and asked some questions about how to structure the Board of Advisors for his start up.  I suggested that I’d use his questions (and a few others) to provide some guidance to a larger group of readers.  He happily agreed, so with that, here are some questions that he asked (and some that he didn’t).

Perhaps it’s befitting that this is Abraham Lincoln’s official birthday.  He was certainly a proponent of freedom, and the social networks that have bloomed in cyberspace are all about freedom (the citizen journalist, self-pronounced experts in numerous fields, getting information from many sources, etc.).

While social networking has more going for it than not, and I wrote about it here on April 11, 2007, there are some downsides to using these networks.  Several of these are discussed below.

I could not let the week pass without a comment on the Superbowl.  No, not the game itself (Hey, I am a Bears fan), but about what it means to startups.  What, you may ask, does the Superbowl have to do with early stage companies?  Well, as a huge fan of football analogies, this is pretty easy.

I attended an angel investor "pitch session" yesterday to hear four companies present.  On balance, all four were interesting, compelling ideas presented by smart people. Whether they get funded or not, time will tell.

I'd say that over the past 10-15 years of my career as an Internet entrepreneur, coach, advisor, board member, and angel investor, I've seen over 400 business plan presentations. Yet overall, so few companies ultimately get funded in any meaningful way. Why?