The Secret to Startup Success from Pinterest's First Investor

“I was Pinterest’s first investor.” That’s a sentence I bet you wish you could say. Here at SXSW, I find myself sitting opposite angel investor Brian Cohen who happily owns that distinction. In other words, he found, as he calls them, a couple of young guys from NYU (Ben Silbermann and Evan Sharp) at a business plan competition where angel investors “forage for new opportunities.” The rest is startup legend.

Thank You for Another Great Event!

The Yale Club Grand Ballroom was once again the site for the Ben Appelbaum Foundation's 13th annual reception. This year, nearly 200 people were in attendance, including many new people who came to learn about BAF.  Former board presidents Skip Vichness and Jeff Ackerman spoke about Ben and how the foundation has carried forward his vision, energy and encouragement to help our mentees. Current board president Peter Boritz outlined our new workshop initiatives and use of social media to grow our outreach efforts.

The One Skill You Need to Be an Entrepreneur

If you're an entrepreneur, what skill can you absolutely not do without? Selling might come up as an obvious possible answer—after all, every business owner regardless of their venture needs to persuade someone to part with their cash. Or in this high-tech world is it a specific bit of know-how, such as SEO optimization or website design? Or could it possibly be pitching and self presentation?