Funding & Capital Raising
How much equity should I grant to advisors?

Clients regularly ask a variation of the above question, replacing advisor with CTO, COO, sales manager, front-end engineer, etc. It’s a great question. And one with varying answers and consequences depending on a company’s lifecycle stage. As a founder, one must understand that a company who has completed a late-stage financing round (Series A, Series B, etc.) can’t dispense equity like a fledgling startup can. Why not?


VW Abroad
What a month in Croatia taught me about entrepreneurship in the U.S.

They say travel changes you. But you can travel the entire world and never actually change. To be impacted by travel, you have to travel intentionally – you have to engage people, explore places, and embrace ideas. Thanks to Vela […]


General Business
VW Startup Lifecycle Infographic

Wondering if your startup is where it should be? This infographic will walk you through the five stages a startup goes through and gives you an idea of where you should be when it comes to your startup’s product, funding, marketing, revenues, legal work, and more.


Funding & Capital Raising
VW Venture Deals Year in Review 2016

In December of 2015, we released a three-year audit of early stage venture deals facilitated by VW and felt that the data was an indicator of early-stage financing trends and the good health of the venture industry in DFW. We’ve just […]


Intellectual Property
Protecting Your Intellectual Property

Protecting your intellectual property is a critical issue for every small business owner, whether you’re a technology startup, building a services business, or launching a new restaurant concept. Kevin spoke to a group of small business owners at a Dallas […]


VW Abroad
Saying Goodbye to Portugal

Notably, this adventure has made me a better person. With manufactured societal restraints stripped away, I’ve been able to become friends with people I often wouldn’t and understand sides of them I never could have imagined.


VW Abroad
Week 3 in Portugal: Exploring the “City that Works”

As an industrial town, Porto is proud of its blue-collar tradition—indeed, residents refer to it as the “City that Works,” as opposed to the flashy, apparently not-working city of Lisbon. But, with the lush facilities at the LX Factory left behind in Lisbon, my work for the first time grew unexpectedly difficult.


VW Abroad
The Road Forward – Week 2 Working in Portugal

My great opportunity was not to just remotely work in Lisbon; the importance of Desk Independence is growth through travel, not travel to one city. Thus, I decided I needed to be more intentional about my trip. Exploring. Experiencing culture. Expanding and adventuring in every direction. I need to move beyond the Lisbon metropolitan area.