Wil Schroter

About

Wil Schroter is the Founder + CEO @ Startups.com, a startup platform that includes Bizplan, Clarity, Fundable, Launchrock, and Zirtual. He started his first company at age 19 which grew to over $700 million in billings within 5 years (despite his involvement). After that he launched 8 more companies, the last 3 venture backed, to refine his learning of what not to do. He's a seasoned expert at starting companies and a total amateur at everything else.

Articles

We Can't Stay Out Of The Game For Too Long

Startup Founders can't afford lengthy breaks from the game because the skills and mindset crucial for entrepreneurship can weaken over time. Here's why.

Don't Let Investors Become Your Customer

When you prioritize investor demands over customer needs in pursuit of additional funding, you risk eroding customer trust and loyalty, negatively impacting your long-term business sustainability.

Don't Fear the Reaper: AI Edition

Founders shouldn't fear changes in technology because embracing advancements can bring various advantages, ultimately fostering growth and success.

When a $40m Exit is More Than a $200m Exit

Let’s delve into the maze of startup exits, exploring the delicate interplay between exit values, ownership, and the real-world implications.

Plan for Bad Times, Budget in Good Times

It's not all sunshine during the good times, and not all doom and gloom during the bad times. It's about striking that perfect balance in your startup's strategy. So, what's the secret to achieving longevity in the ever-shifting landscape of entrepreneurship? Tune in the find out.

Startup Growth Challenges: The Downfall of Becoming Internally Focused

There’s a huge possibility that your focus might change from managing customers and shipping products to hiring staff and doing reports — which could lead to a stall in your skills and growth as a Founder. So as you motivate your people, keep motivating yourself as well!

Analyzing Startup Accounting Results

Analyzing and managing the income statement is about making tons of little tweaks, all the time. Let's cover what goes into analyzing our financial statements and operating expenses to see if they accurately reflect all of the financial transactions we just inputted in our income statement.

Startup Accounting: Processing the Data

We're going to update our financial statements using a simple accounting process that requires zero professional accounting experience or accounting software — it's just our income statement spreadsheet (free download for you!)

Capturing Startup Accounting Data

Building solid financial statements starts with digging through all of the financial transactions in all of our accounts. In our example, we'll do this with a spreadsheet but you can use your accounting software to comb through your financial records and do the same thing.

Intro to Startup Accounting

Accounting in startups — can't live with it, can't grow without it! Let's dive into the gritty details of accounting for a startup to cover our bases and get ahead before our numbers come up short.

Startup Fixed Costs

Everyone's business startup costs will start as a few estimates, and over time, land at more focused projections. We need a little bit of time and reality to give us the final answer. Let's dive into the wonderful world of fixed costs to get started on the right foot.

Startup Forecasting: Pro Forma Template for Startups

Early-stage startups are still building their financial models with assumptions, forecasting everything from sales revenue to marketing costs to a basic cash flow projection. We're going to explain exactly how to build financial projections for your startup even if you have no idea where to start!

Startup Finance: 3 Assumptions That Matter

Assumptions are the raw materials that make up our financial statements and tell us whether we're headed toward gross profit or total disaster! Here, we'll be taking a beginning inventory of the 3 most important financial assumptions that tend to drive most startup company projections.

Accounting for Startups

While we may not know all there is to know about our business yet, there’s still going to be some good old-fashioned accounting to do. So let’s break out those green visors and add machines — it’s time to learn WTF accounting is!

Startup Finance: Financial Assumptions

Startup financial projections are built around making a series of educated guesses about how things might go. In order to better understand the assumptions that make up our financial statements, let's first understand how little we actually know!

Startup Financials

A Startup's financial health isn't just about updating financial statements and balance sheets — it's about understanding basic business financials, and guess what? It's not that hard. This primer is designed for Founders and operators who know little to nothing about startup financials.

How Big of a Failure Can I Survive as a Founder?

For some Founders, when they experience failure, they immediately think that it’s the end. But failure has always been a part of the process and it will teach us valuable lessons along the way.

Why Are All My Founder Friends Ahead of Me?

Sometimes, we look at the success of others and immediately think we’re falling behind. Remember, success is a process, and we go through it in different phases.

We Have SO Much Time Left in Our Careers

Most young entrepreneurs feel that they should rush things just because others seem to be doing well in life already and they’re feeling left behind. Everyone has their own timeframes and maybe this year is just not your year, and that’s okay — because you still have a lot of time left in your career.

Live to Fight Another Day

Is it important for Founders to identify problems early on? Survival is the strategy in Startups, so finding solutions as soon as possible is the name of the game.

How Being a Founder Made Me a Better Parent (and vice versa)

As they say, “Being a Founder is like being a parent, you always stay involved.”

How to Build a Culture of "I'm Wrong"

In startups, you can’t always be right and have a smooth sailing path, in the beginning. Normalizing a culture of admitting and allowing mistakes will help companies know how they can perform better in the future.

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

Sometimes companies have employees who suddenly start performing poorly. What could be the reason? Whenever there are small problems, there must be a root cause of why it’s happening, so it’s up to the Founders to identify what’s causing it.

What I Would Have Told My Former Self

Now that you’re a wiser and more experienced Founder, there are many things that you wished you would’ve done differently. If you could go back in time, what would you tell your past self?

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