Charles Mathison

One of the most common questions we hear from founders at Founders Table is some version of this: How do I get investors? Sometimes the founder is looking for an angel investor. Sometimes they are thinking about venture capital. Sometimes they have already started building a pitch deck and are trying to figure out how to get in front of the right people. But often, the more important question comes first: Is the business actually ready to be presented to investors? Those are not the same...

A business does not operate in isolation. Customers compare. They compare your product with competing products. They compare your service with other services. They compare your price, convenience, reputation, experience, expertise, reliability, and brand with the alternatives available to them. Sometimes the most important competitor is not even another company. It may be whatever the customer is already doing. This means that creating a good product is only part of building a business....

Walk into almost any grocery store and you'll find an entire aisle dedicated to soft drinks. Many taste remarkably similar. Some cost less than Coca-Cola. Yet millions of people reach for the same familiar red can without giving it much thought. They are not simply buying a beverage. They are buying something that has been woven into family gatherings, summer cookouts, sporting events, holiday celebrations, and childhood memories. For more than a century, Coca-Cola has invested not only in...