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About every week, one of the mentors supporting our teams will come to our office and give a presentation based off of their expertise during our lunch hour. Yesterday, we learned from Morris Wheeler, an entrepreneur, angel investor and founder of the investment management company Drummond Road Capital. Morris shared the "Top 10 Lessons" he's learned from his experience as an entrepreneur--we thought they were very thought-provoking and decided to summarize them in this post. 10. An idea is not a startup. A startup is an organization formed to search for a repeatable and scalable business model (Blank, Steven. "What's a…

Position: Graphic Design Intern School: Cuyahoga Community College, Class of 2013 Linkedin Profile We had a chance to sit down with Matt Gilson, one of our graphic design interns, to talk to him about his internship experience. Tell us about living/working in Cleveland. I love it here! I always wanted to live and work in a city, and now that I actually have that experience, I love it! I feel like this is what I should be doing and I want to do this forever—but we’ll see what happens in the future.  What has been your best experience working at FlashStarts?…

Last week, the SEC removed the 80 year-old ban on advertising for startups seeking equity funding. For the past 80 years, angel investing in startups has been limited to a 19th century-sized circle of family, friends and acquaintances. As a result, matching angels to startups resembled a very small dance floor in a very small town. The world of startup fundraising was totally divorced from the 20th Century media onslaught of radio, TV, Internet, modern advertising - the whole digital revolution. Nearly an entire century of communication progress has bypassed the angel/startup investment space. With the SEC’s ruling, startup capital…

This week’s “Food for Thought” was with Todd Federman of North Coast Angel Fund. The North Coast Angel Fund is an angel group that is very prominent in our area and Todd is their executive director. He talked to us about the process of pitching to angel investors and what angel investors and venture capitalists want to hear. He also be shared the best practices for a pitch, which was very valuable to everyone in the office!

Position: Graphic design intern College: Cleveland Institute of Art, Class of 2014 Linkedin Profile My internship at FlashStarts has been great!  While there were several teams and interns at FlashStarts, I was part of a team called Anigraphic, a company with the goal of reimagining graphic storytelling. This startup offered a tool to bring graphic stories to life—a digital editor for artists and writers to enhance their art, imagery, and stories. My basic responsibilities were anything and everything art related. I illustrated an interactive graphic children’s book and helped design the company’s identity by creating a logo, business cards and other visuals…

Almost every week, FlashStarts hosts an event called “Food for Thought” where we’re provided with a free lunch and a chance to hear one of our expert mentors talk about an aspect of entrepreneurship. This week, our “Food for Thought” lunch event was with Robert Hatta. He has worked at Jumpstart as the Vice President of Entrepreneurial Talent, and is currently a partner at Hatch, LLC. At Jumpstart, he worked with portfolio company founders, CEOs, and executive teams on talent planning. He also provided strategic and transactional support for recruiting all levels of team members. Robert spoke to us about…