Efficiency, the ability to accomplish a job with a minimum expenditure of time and effort, is one of the most important ingredients to business success. Startup companies must be ruthless in this pursuit.

If you can’t feed a team with two pizzas, then the team is too large. – Jeff Bezos. Investors want to invest in people more than products, because people make products.

Entrepreneurs tend to be arrogant. This sounds rather like a criticism, but it’s more a statement of fact and a caution.

Every company is composed of individuals with different skill sets and has different roles that must be filled in order to succeed.

One of the most important decisions an entrepreneur must make is the selection of advisory board members for their startup.

A big company bench can allow you to scale rapidly, but excess payroll costs can also drag you down…fast. On the other hand, you can’t be too timid or slow, the market waits for no person. So how do you handle this dilemma?

“We filter out half of these qualified interviewees in the first minute.”

The increasing importance of the Millennial or Gen-Y Generation, those born between early 1980s and the early 2000s, presents the most significant shift in focus for businesses. This up and coming group may present some unique challenges to new business owners, particularly those from an older generation.

Even the great ones can screw this one up, case-in-point: Apple, Inc. Consider this lesson when preparing for your next investor pitch.