"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it" - George Santayana

The financial panic of 1873, which set off a severe nationwide economic depression that lasted for 6 years, included The New York Stock Exchange closing for 10 days, 89 of the country's 364 railroads going bankrupt, and unemployment as high as 14%.  During this extremely challenging time, a gentleman by the name of Thomas Edison started a company called General Electric. You may have heard of both of them.

The Great Depression of the 1930's is even scarier in statistics than in legend.  Industrial production fell by 45% between 1929 and 1932. Homebuilding dropped by 80%. 1,000 of the nation's 25,000 banks failed. US GDP fell by 30%. 

And during these dark days, DuPont created new products and indsutries including rayon, enamels, and cellulose film. RCA invented television.  And a little company called IBM started pouring research dollars into something called the computer.

The 1970's are commonly remembered as a dark period for American finance and business - stagflation, negative stock market returns for the decade, and hits to the national psyche including Vietnam, Watergate, and the Hostage Crisis.  It was also the era that 2 ambitious and visionary young men named Bill Gates and Steve Jobs got their start.

My 20 years in angel investing, small business and entrepreneurship have taught me to separate the world into two kinds of people: Those that comment and complain on how things are and those that do something about it.

Unluckily for all of us, television and the always on Internet give those that comment and complain bigger megaphones than ever to spread their false prophesies of doom. It is only human nature to be affected, depressed, and even scared by their strident negativity.

Very, very luckily for all of us, however, there always be budding Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and Thomas Edisons and Thomas J. Watsons amongst us. And where are these future shining stars devoting their prodigious energies to these days? I promise you that most of them aren't working at General Motors, nor are they drawn to politics or working in the public sector, nor to non-profits.

No, they are capitalists. They are entrepreneurs.  They start and work at Internet companies, they research alternative energy technologies they discover new drugs to make us all live longer and healthier lives. They are and they discover Black Swans.  They - in the words of Voltaire - make "life throb to a swifter, stronger beat."  

And you know what else? They're in it for the money. They want to build companies like Pure Digital (makers of the FlipCam) did and sell out to Cisco Systems for $590 million.  Or Facebook, on the verge of a public offering that will make its early investors billions. Or Integreon, whose business plan was perfected in a small Growthink conference room 10 years ago, and is now the largest legal outsourcing firm in the world (and saving a lot of folks a lot of money on their legal bills).  

With apologies to Doris Day, the future is in fact ours to see. As long as little boys and girls are raised to grow up to do something great with their lives, progress will march on.  Technologies will be commercialized.  New industries will arise.  Companies will be born and will grow and grow and grow. Fortunes will be made.  

The question, of course, is what will be in it for you? Will you be on the couch with the critics? Or will you be in the game with the builders and the doers?

Scott Shane, one of the world's most respected statisticians regarding entrepreneurship and angel investing, has a new book out - "Fools Gold? The Truth Behind Angel Investing in America."  It is without question the finest compilation of statistics and cold, hard facts regarding the REALITIES - as opposed to the myths - of the keys to successful angel and emerging company investing.  Some amazing statistical nuggets from Scott's book:

• The book's 12 chapters have a combined 692 source references!  Compare this to the average "this is what I think with absolutely no basis in numbers" opinions that pass for wisdom on CNBC, on the world of Internet financial blogs, and from your friendly neighborhood financial advisor
• Average portfolio return for angel investors participating in organized angel groups: 27% annual return (quoting this study)
• Return expectation per deal for investments by successful angels: 30x
• Proportion of business angels that expect a 10 times or better return: 45.4% (what they actually get is another matter...)
• Number of companies founded each year that achieve $10 million or more in sales in 6 years: 3,608
• Number of companies founded each year that achieve $100 million or more in sales in 6 years: 175
• Share of drug start-ups that go public: 20.3%
• Portion of venture capital dollars invested in the top five industries for venture capital: computer hardware, software/Internet, semiconductors and other electronics, communication (including mobile) and biotechnology - 81%
• Top reasons why people invest in private companies:  To make money (obviously), to learn new things, to pay it forward
• Number of companies financed by business angels in a typical year: 50,700-57,300
• Amount invested by business angels in a typical year: $23 billion
• % of Angel Investors with net worths of LESS than $1 million: 66.7% (really an amazing statistic as the SEC definition of an accredited investor is a person with a net worth of greater than $1 million)
• 45 to 54 - Age range with the highest odds of making angel investments - disputes the myth that most angel investor are retired
• Proportion of angel investments that involve co-investment with VCs - less than 1.1 percent
• Proportion of angel investments made in retail and personal service businesses - 37.5 percent.  (Note: If you just make a rule to NOT invest in these 2 areas, your probability of emerging company investing success goes up dramatically)

As working with and investing in entrepreneurial companies is my life's work, I read this book extremely closely and found it both invigorating and challenging.  Invigorating in that it confirmed, with statistics, the superiority of private company investment returns vis a vis all other investment classes.  And frustrating in that it starkly outlines the very basic mistakes that most private company investors make over and over again that prevent them from being a successful investor in this asset class.

My overall takeaway: If you want to invest in private company deals, only do so via one of two avenues: 1) Via a GOOD angel investment group like The Band of Angels or the Tech Coast Angels (if you can get in) or via a managed portfolio approach such as a private equity or venture capital fund targeted toward the space or via a hybrid, operational approach like Growthink.

Have you ever heard of ZipSkinny.com?

If you go to the homepage of their site, you'll see a box that asks you to "enter your zip code to see U.S. Census data and comparisons with neighboring ZIPs."

Unless you're one of those people who gets excited about miscellaneous facts and figures, at first glance this might seem like an uneventful site.

But for those of you who provide products or services to local customers, the information available is *invaluable* in conducting market research for your business.

Once you type in your zip code and press enter, you'll see tons of great data on your local market. Such as the percentage of local residents who have graduate degrees or who are married. And, you’ll see economic indicators such as household income, and demographic information on race, age, and gender.  

As an example, I've just typed in 10549, the zip code of our office here in Mount Kisco, a suburban town  just outside of NYC. One fact that stands out to me right away is that 62.3% of residents have lived in the same home for 5+ years. Another is that the median household income is $75,761. Put these two statistics together, and you can deduce that this town is a fertile location for a business where both an affluent demographic and high customer retention are essential, such as a landscaping or cleaning business.

Whether you're looking to conduct preliminary market research before delving into a business, or examining markets into which you can expand your current venture, ZipSkinny is one of many tools that can help you with the process.

And in our recent report, "How to Quickly, Easily, & Expertly Conduct ZERO-COST Market Research For Your Business" I lay out this and several other tools to help you conduct the market research online at a level that is comparable the way it's done by experts with decades of experience.

As you might recall, I released this report at a STEEPLY discounted rate of one cent for each year of my wife's age, in honor of her birthday in March.  And that discount is about to disappear forever.  

On Thursday at midnight, the price is going up more than 100x, so as the subject of this blog post suggests, this is your last chance to get the information of market research experts for literally pennies.

If you are a Growthink University member, you can click here to grab your free copy of the report if you haven't done so already.

Otherwise to order now, click here. Or for more information, you can watch the brief video below:

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interview Brad Feld, who is considered among the elite investors in privately held companies.

For those of you who are not familiar with Brad, his background includes starting and selling his own software company, investing as an angel in 40 to 50 companies, and founding or co-founding three venture capital firms: Intensity Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital and Foundry Group, where he currently serves as Managing Director.

While there were several invaluable points for entrepreneurs seeking capital in the interview, I found the following to be most interesting:

1. Your VC firm is your partner.

Many first-time entrepreneurs view VCs simply as providers of capital. In actuality, VCs are partners. They exert control over your company. They have experience in product development or scaling companies, or both, and can provide significant value beyond the money they infuse in companies.

Because VCs are partners that exert control, you need to assess them much like you would other partners. Mainly, you need to make sure that there is a really good fit.

2. Angel investors are the friend of the first-time entrepreneur.

First time entrepreneurs should strongly consider angel investments prior to venture capital. Angel investors often have financing experience which can help entrepreneurs navigate the VC waters when they are ready (there are a ton of terms and issues involved with venture capital that most first-time entrepreneurs don't know about).

Angel investors also tend to have relationships with VCs. Also, angels often have the operational experience to help grow the entrepreneur's company. And finally, the angels' funding can help the company grow to a point where it is more suitable for venture capital.

However, when structuring angel deals, it is imperative to keep the pricing/valuation fair and the deal terms as simple as possible. If not, raising subsequent venture capital rounds becomes more challenging.

3. Don't look for investors who are not a good fit

Brad mentioned the 80/20 or even the 99/1 rule. Essentially, entrepreneurs should spend a ton of time on the 1% of investors who are a great fit. And not waste their effort on the other investors.

Two key aspects that Brad mentioned for ensuring a good fit are 1) geography (many VCs will only invest in certain geographic regions) and 2) sector (Foundry Group simply doesn't invest in Clean Tech; no matter how exciting the company looks). I would also add "stage" to this list as many VCs focus on companies at specific stages (e.g., some only want post-revenue companies, etc.)

You can listen to the full 30-minute interview by clicking the blue triangle on the audio player below:

Are you an entrepreneur looking to find angel investors for your deal?  Gain all the tips and advice you need with our Growthink's Angel Investor Guide.

My recent interview with PR expert Richard Harris was enlightening. You may know that I owe a lot of Growthink's success to PR. A decade ago, I pitched the Los Angeles Times and they published a story on us. That day I received about a hundred phone calls, and at least that volume in emails. So, I focused the interview on figuring out how to replicate that success.

Richard serves as the founder and CEO of Momentum, which provides communications, strategy and placement agent services to private equity funds, investment banks, and selected early stage and non-profit companies. A 20+ year veteran of the public relations industry, Richard has not only an impressive client list (that includes The Girl Scouts of America, Polaris Venture Partners and Star Jones), but also a wealth of knowledge on this subject.

Some of the areas the Richard covered were:

• Four ways to make your press release "newsworthy"
• The three press release distribution sites that are worth using (and why you shouldn't use the other ones)
• The different people you need to pitch if you are targeting websites and print publications versus television or radio media
• The best time and day of the week to pitch journalists
• What NOT to do if a journalist picks up your story

And many, many other critical points that every entrepreneur needs to know about if they want publicity for their businesses.

The full interview is available for members of Growthink University.

For non-members, you can listen to the first five minutes of the interview by clicking on the blue triangle on the player below. 

• Desire for gain
• Fear of loss
• Security and protection
• Comfort and convenience
• Pride of ownership
• Satisfaction of some emotion like love or hate or ego

Great sales people understand which of these six motivators are most important to their prospects, and sell into them.

2. Spending time with your best sales performers.

Adam told us that too many business owners neglect their top sales performers. Rather, they tend to focus on improving their lowest performers.

There are two problems with this approach. First, working with and improving the performance of your best sales performers by only 10% may be easier and more beneficial than improving the performance of your lower sales performers by 25%. Secondly, your top sales performers are the ones that will be targeted by headhunters and other firms, and you can't afford to lose them.

A few of the other areas we covered were:

• The keys to building a successful sales team
• Adam's favorite ways to motivate a sales team
• At what point can the entrepreneur or founder still run the sales organization and at what point should they bring in a dedicated sales manager
• How to provide feedback, motivation, and inspiration for team members
• How to transfer the skills of top performers to everyone else in the organization
• How to create an environment that encourages improvement and performance