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Learn by Stage
  • Starting
    • Idea Generation
      • Vision, Mission, and Enlightened Capitalism
      • Why You Should Start Before You Think You’re Ready
      • Wendy Tsu Shares Quick Tips on Ideation & Teams
      • How Do You Identify a Big Idea? AlleyCorp’s Kevin Ryan Shares Tips
    • Founding Team
      • 5 Tricks To Starting a Venture with Your Partner
      • Should You Add a Co-Founder?
      • Choosing a Co-Founder? How to Find the Right Person
      • Going Solo: Founding a Startup without a Co-Founder
      • Kevin Ryan Shares Insights on What Makes Great CEOs
    • Founders' Agreements
      • 3 Topics To Discuss Before Writing a Founders’ Agreement
      • Reasons to Write a Formal Founders’ Agreement
      • Key Terms to Include in a Founders’ Agreement
    • Equity Splits
      • Co-Founder Equity Splits—Ways to Approach Allocations
      • Why You Should You File an 83(b) Election
      • Structuring Equity Splits to Mitigate Co-Founder Conflict
      • Layering Value—A Different Way of Dividing Founder Equity
    • Fundraising
      • 3 Hacks for Calculating How Much Your Startup Needs to Raise
      • How to Build a Great Pitch that Hooks Investors
      • Should You Bootstrap?
      • Navigating a Deal Before You Sign a Term Sheet
      • Common Funding Mistakes when Scaling
    • Perspectives on Raising Venture Capital
      • Raising Money at an Early-Stage Startup? Tips from Joro’s CEO
      • What Qualities Do VCs Look for in Founders? Investor Nick Grouf Shares Insights
    • Fundraising Docs
      • Common Terms & Their Implications
  • Building the Business
    • Co-Founder Fit
      • Quick Tips for Finding Co-Founder Fit from Sunil Nagaraj
      • Searching for a Co-Founder? Lara O’Connor Hodgson on Why Perspective Matters More than Skills
      • Dinesh Moorjani on Finding the Right Co-Founder
    • Mental Health & Well-Being
      • Debunking Myths about Parenting While Founding a Startup
      • 5 Tricks To Starting a Venture with Your Partner
      • Strategies for Optimizing Wellness & Productivity
      • Entrepreneurs, Stress & Depression
      • Entrepreneurs and Depression—Ways to Help Yourself or a Colleague Who Is Struggling
    • Founder-CEO Roles & Challenges
      • Want To Build the Next Unicorn? Presence Matters More Than Capability
      • Saving the Planet from Your Smartphone: Sanchali Pal on Leading a Mission-Driven Startup
      • How to Mentally Prepare for a Difficult Conversation
      • How to Express Empathy While Working Remotely
      • Staying Motivated through Disappointments & Failure
      • Mindfulness & Entrepreneurs: How Meditation Makes You a Better Leader
      • Managing the Pressures of Rapid Growth
      • Sunil Nagaraj of Ubiquity Ventures on Co-Founder Compatibility
    • Recruiting & Retention
      • Thinking about Firing Someone? CEOs Share Advice for Framing Your Decision
      • Want to Build a Strong Team? Spend More Time on Recruiting—Not Money
      • AlleyCorp’s Kevin Ryan on Traits of Great Business Leaders
      • How Hiring for Growth Mindsets Can Help Your Startup Scale
    • Board & Advisors
      • Ways To Improve Your Relationship with Your Board
      • How To Get More Value from Your Board
      • 5 Mistakes Founders Make with their Boards—and How to Avoid Them
    • Culture
      • Strategies for Building a Strong Remote Team Culture
      • How Culture Helped Careem’s CEO Scale a Startup into a Unicorn
      • How Mission Helps You Build the Best Team
    • Joining a Startup
      • How to Value Your Equity at an Early Stage Startup
    • Product: Customer-Problem Fit
      • Turn Your Idea into a Product Users Want: Identify the Right Problem
      • Customer Interviewing Techniques That Uncover Your Users’ Unmet Needs
  • Scaling
    • Sales Fundamentals
      • What Founders Should Know about the Sales Process
    • Sales, Marketing & PR
      • What Founders Should Know about the Sales Process
      • Tinder’s Co-Founder Shares B2C Marketing Strategies
      • Tips for Technical Hardware Startups Working with Enterprise Customers
    • B2B
      • Tips for Technical Hardware Startups Working with Enterprise Customers
    • B2C
      • Tinder’s Co-Founder Shares B2C Marketing Strategies
    • How to Scale
      • Magnus Olsson on How To Find Your Purpose
      • 3 Consequences of Hypergrowth & How to Prepare
      • Tips for Scaling Startups from NOW Corp’s CEO
      • Why You Should Focus on Mission & Communication as You Scale
      • Scaling Your Startup? Focus More on People
      • Scaling Myths That Could Impact Your Startup
  • Exiting
    • Exit Strategies
      • CEO Dulcie Madden on Navigating Cash Flow Shortages & Adversity While Raising Your Family & Team
Expert Insights
  • Wes Hall on Systemic Racism—How It Affected Him and Why He Felt Obligated To Act
  • Wes Hall on Motivation for Founding BlackNorth Initiative
  • Wes Hall on the BlackNorth Initiative CEO Pledge and Summit
  • Wes Hall’s Rise from Mailroom Courier to Board Room Exec

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Workshops
  • Pitching 1
    • How to Build a Great Pitch that Hooks Investors
      • How to Build a Great Pitch the Hooks Investors
      • Guide for How to Build a Great Pitch the Hooks Investors
  • Pitching 2
    • How to Convince Investors to Make the Leap
      • How to Convince Investors to Make the Leap
      • Guide for How to Convince Investors to Make the Leap
  • Fundraising Basics
    • How Much Funding Do You Really Need to Raise?
      • Guide for How Much Funding Do You Need to Raise?
      • How Much Funding Do You Need To Raise?
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Contributor

Lou Shipley
Lou Shipley website link
Lou Shipley

Serial Entrepreneur, CEO, Executive-in-Residence at General Catalyst

Lou currently serves as an executive-in-residence at General Catalyst (GC) in Cambridge, MA. Prior to GC, Lou was the president and CEO of Black Duck Software, a GC-backed company acquired by Synopsys in December 2017. He is also a lecturer at both the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Harvard Business School.

Prior to joining Black Duck in 2013, Lou was president and CEO of VMTurbo, Inc., and Reflectent Software (acquired by Citrix Systems in 2006), both of which served the enterprise and financial services industries. After the Reflectent acquisition, Lou served as general manager of the Citrix Management Systems group, and then took on the role of general manager of the Citrix Virtualization and Cloud Products Group. He worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Highland Capital Partners in 2002. Prior to Highland, Lou served as vice president of Worldwide Field Operations for WebLine Communications, a customer contact center software company acquired by Cisco Systems. Before WebLine, Lou served as vice president of Americas and Pacific operations at Avid Technology. He joined Avid when the company was a startup and oversaw its growth to over $450 million in revenue. Lou also founded and served as president of Avid Japan KK. Lou serves as chairman of the board of CustomerGauge and is an advisor to Rekener and Spoiler Alert.

Lou is also a lecturer at both the MIT Sloan School of Management and the Harvard Business School, where he instructs, mentors, and coaches the next-generation of tech entrepreneurs and executives on technology sales and sales management, including the course, “Technology Sales & Sales Management.” He is a frequent writer and commentator on technology and business topics. His work has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Chicago Tribune, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, and The Huffington Post.

Lou holds a BA in economics from Trinity College and an MBA from the Harvard Business School

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Contributions

  • Learn By Function

  • Sales, Marketing & PR: Sales Fundamentals

    What Founders Should Know about the Sales Process

    Every entrepreneur begins by selling an idea. But, often, founder-CEOs lack fundamental knowledge about the sales process that underlies selling products. In a focused interview, sales expert Lou Shipley defines fundamentals that all founder-CEOs should know and understand about the sales process.

    8 min read

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