Mentors
Latest
Tesla Motors: A Silicon Valley tech start-up taking on the auto giants
PayPal co-founder Elon Musk is applying a Silicon Valley tech start-up mindset to building cars with Tesla Motors. With Ford and GM/Holden struggling, this company is disrupting an antiquated industry.

Eight lessons from BuyReply’s $1 million funding round
Recently, my eCommerce start-up BuyReply raised $1 million from a consortium including Peter Thiel. Here are eight key lessons from our fundraising process.

Should you study business or learn to code?
If you’re about to start studying and are interested in becoming a tech entrepreneur, should you start studying business or computer science? The answer depends on your career direction.

Giving out equity
One of the big decisions you’ll need to make when you start a business is who you will grant equity to, and under what circumstances. Your answer will have a big impact on your future financial wellbeing. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

No such thing as dumb technical luck
On the internet, no one builds ‘everything’ in a new product from scratch. ‘Technical luck’ is the opportunity to leverage an existing platform or technology into a new business opportunity. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Why 80% of your investment cash needs to go on people
When you start-up, one of your biggest investments will be in people. So it is essential to get the process of hiring right. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Create your own luck
Australians are lucky that our country has incredibly rich reserves of natural resources. But what will we do when our luck runs out? BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Zynga and Facebook: Why the social media game is changing
Last week, the relationship between Facebook and Zynga changed. The saga is a warning to start-ups about the dangers of locking yourself into someone else’s proprietary platform. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

The importance of physical proximity
When it came to the need for physical proximity in business, I used to be a sceptic. That was before I went to New York on a sales trip. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Still searching for investors? It’s time to get strategic
Are you looking for a source of funding? It might be worth calling some of your larger customers or suppliers to see if they’re interested in making a strategic investment. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Convertible notes and priced rounds
In the past week, a debate has raged across the start-up blogosphere about two funding structures used by VCs. As an entrepreneur who recently launched a business, here’s my take on the debate. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Going agile
The finish line is in sight. The big launch of our tech start-up, BuyReply, is just two weeks away. For the final leg of this marathon, we’ve chosen to use an agile development process. Here’s how it works. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Why cloud computing makes sense for tech start-ups
One of the problems many tech start-ups have to deal with is how to scale up or handle a surge of customers on a limited budget. For us, cloud computing services are the solution. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Understanding the future of the media
It is now undeniable that the media landscape is changing, and the worlds of commerce and retail are changing with it. Even if your start-up isn’t in the media industry, understanding these changes is essential. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

The death of the resume
Let me make a bold prediction: The resume will be dead within three years. Here’s why. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

The best investment I never made
Some people say that property is a great investment. For me, buying a property was the best investment I never made. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Staying small
There are good reasons why most innovations come from small start-ups. This ability to innovate is also a key advantage we have over our larger competitors. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Hiring staff with the right stuff
In a start-up, you literally can’t afford to hire the type of employees who just sit in a cubicle. Thankfully, there are ways you can ensure your organisation hires the right staff. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Vision is a type of talent
Creating a vision is an essential business skill. It means spending less on hiring “experts” and having more money for staff who actually do things. BY BRAD LINDENBERG.

Co-founders: The minimum viable personality
If you apply a “lean start-up” strategy to making sure your products are viable and in hiring the right staff, why not use the same philosophy to find the right co-founder? BY BRAD LINDENBERG.
