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"Founders tended to be middle-aged—40 years old on average—when they started their first companies. Nearly 70 percent were married when they became entrepreneurs, and nearly 60 percent had at least one child, challenging the stereotype of the entrepreneurial workaholic with no time for a family."

"The real hero is already home because she figured out a faster way to get things done.” In other words, the goal should never be more hours but quality output. 

“Workaholics aren’t heroes. They don’t save the day, they just use it up,"

On average, these masters practiced in 90-minute spurts, three times a week, and slept 8.6 hours a day. That doesn't sound anything like the average entrepreneur’s schedule, but maybe it should, because both entrepreneurs and violinists need to be competitive and creative.

Two books that change the way I looked at innovation and creativity, The Power of Pull and Imagine, encourage entrepreneurs to step outside their “worldview” and challenge their assumptions on a consistent basis, which is also known as “taking a break." 

It pays off to take breaks and remove yourself from your company. 

No matter how much trust an entrepreneur builds during our interactions, I always verify the veracity of their claims and prior accomplishments by speaking to people with whom they previously worked. Confirmation from people whom the entrepreneur did not cite as a reference is vital.

No B.S. – A firm handshake, coupled with direct eye contact, was often the only contract underlying a Grubstake deal. As such, communication had to be clear, open and direct. I have no interest partnering with an entrepreneur who only communicates positive information, while obfuscating negative issues. As such, part of our diligence process includes assessing how clearly and honestly the entrepreneur communicates.

It’s low-class, inappropriate and predatory for a rich person to ask an entrepreneur to PAY THEM for 15 minutes of their time. Seriously, what is the cost to the party hearing the pitch? If you answered “nothing” or “the cost of two cups of coffee” you win the prize! Even if you rent a hotel room and put out breakfast for your fellow angel investors that’s like $20 a person. You mean to tell me that a room full of rich investors can’t afford to pay for their own God-damned $20 in bad coffee, stale pastry and stained ballroom rugs? Really?

To be clear, I am making this a class war because it is one: cash-poor startups are bringing RICH angel investors an opportunity to become EVEN MORE RICH. As such, the rich folks should pick up the non-existent to minimal costs.

Why startups fall for “angel group” payola =========== Now, you ask: why would any self-respecting entrepreneur pay thousands of dollars to rich people just for the opportunity to pitch? Well, the truth is that the more mature — or flat out better — startups would never pay to present. The best ideas by the best entrepreneurs get socialized instantly. As an new angel investor myself, one who has only done two investments of $25,000 and $50,000, I can tell you that I already get flooded with pitches. I can’t even imagine the volume of pitches real angel investors like Matt Coffin, Sandy Climan, Sky Dayton, Tony Hsieh and Ron Conway get inundated with.

c) you are actually a good person who has just never thought about how smarmy it is to charge a startup for your time?

Disruption is key as well, as some of Khosla’s portfolio companies have taken on the biggest and most difficult problems in the world. On Khosla’s investment on payment service Square: If you said to someone three years ago that you could compete against PayPal, most people would say that’s a crazy idea, payments are done.

Some of the new things that Khosla’s firm is getting into is the consumerization of healthcare, and he has discussed some of the new companies he’s investing in, including smart chips and apps that help you track your vital signs. At the end of the day, Vinod Khosla doesn’t even like to refer to himself as a venture capitalist: I don’t consider myself a VC, I consider myself a mentor.

Q.How long did it take before you were generating cash flow?A.Because we’re a contract brewery we were able to be cash-flow positive in a very short amount of time minus the initial outlay for packaging and ingredient costs, which were obviously funded by the start-up capital that we put in. We were able to really be cash-flow positive within the first six to eight weeks of operation and have been profitable on paper since our second or third batch of beer.