Think you're ready to start up? Put yourself to the test. Check out the five crucial keys to knowing it's time.Andy Palmer has started at least five companies by my count--and I’d guess he has invested in dozens of others. Based on that experience, I’d consider him an expert when it comes to […]

It's official: Mark Pincus is stepping aside as CEO of Zynga. It's hardly surprising: Founders rarely make good public-company CEOs.Mark Pincus has left the building. Well, sort of. In a statement issued earlier today, Pincus, the founder and CEO of Zynga, the troubled gaming start-up that's been […]

Inc.'s Editor in Chief Eric Schurenberg reveals why the longtime series is always compelling and dramatic read.I had coffee on a recent morning with an entrepreneur, as I often do. What struck me about this founder, an enthusiastic Ohioan named Austin Allison, was how unremarkable his remarkable […]

Did you create your budget in gloomier days? Be aware there's new reason for optimism -- and for making mid-year tweaks to your budget.A few phantom green shoots a couple of years back aside, it’s been a long time since entrepreneurs had much in the way of positive economic news to celebrate. But […]

You know bored employees often quit, so why aren't your pausing every once in awhile to assess your top performers' boredom levels?Sometimes your best employee leaves because he wants to move somewhere sunny or because his wife got a new gig on the other side of the country. Sometimes that uber […]

You say you believe in your idea. In your people. In your plan. Then run your business that way, and you'll have no regrets.The startup-childbirth analogy ranks among our most overworked business clichés. We talk less about the deathbed vigil that accompanies failure. But as this recent Tumblr […]

Not all incubators are created equal--and with more of them out there, you need to choose where you apply wisely.The age of the accelerator is officially upon us.Here is but a glimpse into the proliferation of start-up programs in the U.S. and Europe as reported by U.K. research firm NESTA:Since […]

This young entrepreneur started Merchandize Liquidators in his one-bedroom condo with $375. Here's the advice he used to guide him to success.Yosef Martin founded the fast-growing Merchandize Liquidators in his one-bedroom condo in 2003 with nothing but $375--and these three pieces of advice.When I […]

Are start-ups getting carried away with crazy perks? Maybe not, responds one VC, who offers a nuts and bolts rationale for this obsession with morale.The internet is full of tales of startups going to extreme lengths to get company culture right and keep morale high. From paying employees to […]

Remember same-day delivery services that failed spectacularly in the dot-com crash? They're baaaack. But they say this time is different.Same-day delivery services (think Webvan and Kozmo) crashed and burned in 2001. But a new crop of start-ups claims this time is different. Why It Might […]

Face it, sometimes you're going to mess up. Here's how to do wrong things the right way.Winston Churchill famously said success is defined by the ability "to go from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."The world's most most interesting entrepreneurs certainly lived that reality."If we're […]

Are you a member of the texting generation who's more than a little awkward on the phone? VC Mark Suster has tips for you.No one uses the phone anymore, the New York Times declared a couple of years ago and millions of young people shrugged.Texting? Sure. Chatting online? Of course, but for a […]

A former work addict finds that taking a little time off has transformative power.As much as I'd like to boast about my ability to see the big picture, day-to-day details have long prevented me from fully observing what was happening around me. I was junkie, a common day work addict that justified […]

The product development firm, Insight, has launched a new funding model to help start-ups get through a critical stage of developmentIncubators are a fairly recent trend in the start-up world. They provide critical tools to a start-up; companies typically get office space that they share with other […]

When it comes to launching a small business, American entrepreneurs don't go very far. In fact, sixty-nine percent get started at home, according to the latest Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report.When we think of entrepreneurs, we think of visionaries working with a brilliant team of coders, […]

There are tons of new funding opportunities for undergrad entrepreneurs.Peter Thiel may be paying students to skip college, but undergrad entrepreneurs need not worry--there's plenty of money out there for them as well.Several VC firms on the lookout for the next Michael Dell or Mark Zuckerberg […]

Your business may keep you racing like a frantic short order cook, but truly great ideas require a slow simmer, advises the founder of Behance. Save a little time to stir these pots.You’ve no doubt heard of Google’s famous 20 percent time, and here on Inc.com we recentlly offered another bit of […]

Dark Sky's creators Adam Grossman and Jason LaPorte on how they developed their breakthrough meteorological technology.Adam Grossman, Jack Turner, and Jason LaPorte had an idea for a simple weather app, with one major twist. Instead of predicting weather by the day or week, their app would predict […]

Getting fired from the company you started may seem hard to imagine, but it happens fairly frequently. Avoid these mistakes and it won't happen to you.Getting fired from the company you created is probably the last thing you can imagine. Unfortunately, it's a fairly regular occurrence that can have […]

Not all stories have a happy ending.Kickstarter, the world's largest crowdfunding site, gives entrepreneurs a platform to raise money for pet projects like a new business, a film, or even a music video.To date, the site has collectively raised more than $679 million for more than 100,000 campaigns, […]

The founder of Justin's explains how his company shook up the nut butter category.In 2003, Justin Gold began peddling his homemade organic nut butters at a farmers' market in Boulder, Colorado. With just $25,000 in seed money raised from family members, Gold planned to build a strong local […]

After one year with Google Fiber, Kansas City is learning that it may take more than just superfast Internet to spur start-up creation.Kansas City is famous for its barbecue, not its start-up scene. That's why it came as quite a surprise when Google selected it to become the pilot city for its […]

His company was thriving. Then he joined a startup accelerator. Now he's going bust. Is start-up culture to blame?Entrepreneurs love to talk about success. Failure, not so much. Indeed, when the dreaded f-word is mentioned, it’s almost always invoked as something to be proud of, a badge of […]

Two start-ups attempt to change the relationship between government and entrepreneurs.On June 24, the Knight Foundation announced the winners to its Knight News Challenge on Open Gov. Launched in February, the challenge aimed to encourage innovators to come up with solutions that would enable […]

Rather than rely on someone else's software, the eyeglass maker created its own.In Warby Parker's world, style isn't the only thing that shouldn't be imitated. Software shouldn't be either. When the venture-backed start-up realized none of the 30 existing point-of-sale vendors would serve its […]

A Baltimore start-up tackles blindness with new innovative treatments.Warby Parker isn't the only start-up disrupting the vision space. GrayBug, a company that recently won the Invest Maryland Challenge in Baltimore, Maryland, is revolutionizing drug delivery and treatments for the eye. GrayBug […]

From Sky Sapience's Hovercraft to the Scanadu Scout, here's a rundown of the coolest gadgets turning our sci-fi fantasies into reality.Sci-fi authors and filmmakers are visionaries, creating gadgets for a whole new world. There's the flying DeLorean from Back to the Future and the stealth […]

Experts weigh in on everything from when should you try to get away to how to keep the heat from ruining your gadgets.This Friday summer officially got underway but you’ve probably been daydreaming about vacation season from long before that. And, as a business owner, also probably fretting about […]

From going out too much to having too many founders, here's what you've been doing wrong.When you write and read about start-ups all day long, you see founders make a lot of mistakes.As an observer of and dabbler in start-ups, I've kept track of all the things I'd try to avoid as an […]

The next generation of entrepreneurs literally have the world at their fingertips. Here's why you want to employ them.After years of launching companies, I've often wondered how today's entrepreneurs create, structure, and grow a small business. Finally, I took a 16-month tour to find out.Last week […]