SparkWorks Innovation, Staska Keefer Pivoting (Part 2): Pivot or Persevere? Pivot or Persevere? One of the most consequential decisions a founder makes isn’t about features, pricing, or hiring. It’s this: Do we stay the course or do we change direction?
SparkWorks Innovation, Staska Keefer Pivoting (Part 1): Making the Hard Call Pivot Isn’t Failure. It’s Strategy Catching Up to Reality. Every startup reaches a point where the hard question shows up: Is this working?
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Why Your Pitch Matters (Part 4): Common Pitching Mistakes to Avoid Even great ideas can fall flat if they’re pitched poorly. Most pitch failures don’t happen because the business is bad...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Why Your Pitch Matters (Part 3): Anatomy of a Winning Pitch While a good story can tie everything together, there are key elements that every strong pitch should have.
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Why Your Pitch Matters (Part 2): The Power of Storytelling It can be hard for most people to remember raw data and cold facts. It is much easier to remember how something made them feel. This is what makes storytelling such a powerful tool...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Why Your Pitch Matters (Part 1): Attention-Grabbing Openers A competitive startup environment combined with shrinking attention spans makes a great pitch more important now than ever. A pitch serves as your startup’s first impression...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Startup Boards 101 (Part 4): Why Personal Ties Can Lead to Conflict Inviting friends, neighbors, or family members to sit on your startup’s board can lead to several challenges, some of which might not be expected when going into business...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Startup Boards 101 (Part 3): Building a Board that Fits Your Startup There are several things to consider when creating a Board, either advisory or statutory, so that it meets your startup’s needs and goals. There are three key factors to remember...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Startup Boards 101 (Part 2): Board of Directors vs. Advisory Board: What is the Difference? While both a Board of Directors and an Advisory Board play important roles in the success of a startup, their responsibilities, authority, and purpose are quite different.
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Startup Boards 101 (Part 1): Why Every Startup Needs a Board In the midst of creating products, finding customers and investors, and closing sales, founders rarely think about adding a board of directors to their companies...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Building Smarter with Legal (Part 3): Is a Human Attorney Really Better than AI for Legal Advice? The quick answer is yes. A human attorney is well worth the time and money. With various AI tools emerging, services that presume to provide AI legal assistance...
SparkWorks Innovation, Kathryn Keefer Building Smarter with Legal (Part 2): What Should I Consider When Hiring a Startup Attorney? As discussed in the previous post, an attorney experienced with start-up work is crucial to meet your company's early needs. Start-ups are unique businesses that require specialized...
