<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><rss xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/" xmlns:content="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/content/" xmlns:atom="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" version="2.0"><channel><title><![CDATA[sbur]]></title><description><![CDATA[sbur]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/blog</link><generator>RSS for Node</generator><lastBuildDate>Fri, 28 Aug 2026 03:18:59 GMT</lastBuildDate><atom:link href="https://blog.sbur.com/blog-feed.xml" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml"/><item><title><![CDATA[From Corporate Stability to Startup Success: Key Entrepreneurial Lessons from Nucleus RX]]></title><description><![CDATA[Stepping into the world of entrepreneurship is rarely a straight line. It requires navigating terrifying risks, overcoming industry-wide blind spots, and having the conviction to solve a problem that hits close to home. In a recent episode of Sbur Decision Lab, host Tony Zhang sat down with Projit Aon, the co-founder and CEO of Nucleus RX. Projit shared his compelling journey from leaving a stable, two-decade-long corporate career to developing a patented, connected pill dispensing system...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/from-corporate-stability-to-startup-success-key-entrepreneurial-lessons-from-nucleus-rx</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a90a01db26be70df8909629</guid><pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 20:38:21 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHXNNsZir1A" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Is SAFE safe?]]></title><description><![CDATA[A founder's guide to the instrument that now dominates pre-seed fundraising — and the traps hiding inside it. You just got a term sheet. It's two pages, no interest rate, no maturity date, and your lawyer says "don't worry, it's just a SAFE, everyone uses one." Six months later you're staring at a cap table that doesn't look anything like what you thought you signed up for, wondering how a "simple" document produced such a complicated outcome. That confusion is the norm, not the exception....]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/is-safe-safe</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a90912fbb9b5df79516cdcb</guid><pubDate>Thu, 27 Aug 2026 19:37:25 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Tony Zhang</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Building Your Advisory Board: Who Should Influence Your Company?]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Decision Founders Are Actually Making Building an advisory board is a trust-allocation problem under information asymmetry. You're granting someone structured access to your strategic thinking — your unresolved risks, your blind spots, your cap table — often before you have enough evidence to know whether their judgment holds up under pressure. The real decision is who gets to influence you — and what that costs. This is harder than it sounds for three reasons. First, it's a trust...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/building-your-advisory-board-who-should-influence-your-company</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8e0164bd81428ea60fbc82</guid><pubDate>Tue, 25 Aug 2026 21:04:18 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0f62a_78001e67532340beacfa3e81ac1e4005~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Democratizing Private Aviation: Key Takeaways for Entrepreneurs from the BasiFly Pitch]]></title><description><![CDATA[The commercial airline experience is deteriorating at an alarming pace, leaving a growing segment of travelers deeply frustrated with unpredictable and unreliable options. Meanwhile, regional private aircraft operators are burdened with underutilized capacity, often absorbing the heavy costs of flying empty legs because they lack visibility into market demand. In a recent episode of the Sbur Decision Lab, host Tony Zhang sat down with Mike Mitchell, the founder of BasiFly, to explore how his...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/democratizing-private-aviation-key-takeaways-for-entrepreneurs-from-the-basifly-pitch</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8c89c02b939e58eddd162f</guid><pubDate>Mon, 24 Aug 2026 18:15:07 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How Do You Know You've Reached Product-Market Fit?]]></title><description><![CDATA[The decision: Keep iterating on the product, or shift resources into scaling distribution. This is one of the highest-stakes calls a founder makes. Scale too early, and the company burns capital, hires ahead of demand, and locks in a go-to-market motion that doesn't actually work — often fatally. Wait too long, and competitors capture the market the founder was building for, while the team loses momentum chasing a "perfect" product that was already good enough. The difficulty isn't defining...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/how-do-you-know-you-ve-reached-product-market-fit</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a88a7fc700eb2025e8e7773</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 19:38:31 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0f62a_da8cd6bc44174005bc7c43446436a5ea~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[When Should You Pivot? A Framework for Weighing Evidence Against Conviction]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Decision Beneath the Decision "Should we pivot?" is not really the question founders are asking. The real question is: how much weight should current evidence carry against the plan we already committed to? This is difficult for a structural reason, not a personal one. Founders operate with incomplete information, under time pressure, while personally invested in the outcome. The same trait that makes someone capable of starting a company — conviction in the face of doubt — is the trait...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/when-should-you-pivot-a-framework-for-weighing-evidence-against-conviction</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a8896bb6e0b89a9217c147a</guid><pubDate>Fri, 21 Aug 2026 18:27:22 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0f62a_84a3b97903104b6ab23d5fbdc0f1f7d1~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_929,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[How CleanTech Innovators Can Scale Without Disrupting the Status Quo]]></title><description><![CDATA[As an entrepreneur, one of the biggest dilemmas you face is how to completely disrupt a massive market without causing chaos for your customers. In our latest interview at Sbur Decision Lab, Matt Phillips sat down with Yani Deros, CEO and co-founder of CIRQ+, to discuss how his nimble team is doing exactly that in the massive hospitality sector. CIRQ+ has developed an innovative energy management operating system that acts as wireless middleware between utilities and hotel guest rooms. Their...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/how-cleantech-innovators-can-scale-without-disrupting-the-status-quo</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a861bbd57720c802c165337</guid><pubDate>Wed, 19 Aug 2026 21:11:45 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3kEYExVVwE" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Rebuilding Trust: What Entrepreneurs Can Learn from the Disruption of the Online Review Ecosystem]]></title><description><![CDATA[Online reviews are a fundamental pillar of modern commerce. Statistically, 98% of people read reviews before making a purchase decision. Yet, the systems we rely on to guide our decisions are fundamentally obsolete, built more than two decades ago before smartphones, social media, or generative AI existed. Today, less than 2% of consumers actually leave reviews, and of those, over one-third are entirely fake, bought, or artificially generated. In a recent episode of Sbur Decision Lab, host...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/rebuilding-trust-what-entrepreneurs-can-learn-from-the-disruption-of-the-online-review-ecosystem</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7e3668d791ff6850b59706</guid><pubDate>Thu, 13 Aug 2026 21:27:26 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNJ2XPGoqxQ" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Turning Ancient Wisdom into Modern SaaS: Entrepreneurial Lessons from Relax Infinity]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every great startup begins with a moment of sharp clarity—a realization that a widespread problem lacks an accessible, scalable solution. In a recent feature on the Sbur Decision Lab, Pramit Maakoday, co-founder of Relax Infinity, discusses how his team is addressing the global mental health crisis by merging time-tested Eastern wellness practices with modern Western science. For fellow founders navigating the early stages of building a company, the pitch and interview offer valuable...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/turning-ancient-wisdom-into-modern-saas-entrepreneurial-lessons-from-relax-infinity</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7a4653ecb2cb929ff7969f</guid><pubDate>Mon, 10 Aug 2026 21:46:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7pV9L7vqqp4" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Choosing the Right Investors: A Founder Decision Guide]]></title><description><![CDATA[The Decision Behind the Decision Most founders think of fundraising as a capital problem: how much money, at what valuation, from whom. But the investor decision is really a governance and constraint decision disguised as a financing decision. Every investor who joins your cap table acquires some combination of information rights, board influence, follow-on expectations, and reputational association with your company — for the next seven to ten years, regardless of how the business performs....]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/choosing-the-right-investors-a-founder-decision-guide</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7646ac2dc76a37da3f07e2</guid><pubDate>Fri, 07 Aug 2026 21:19:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/c0f62a_4b3f7722f3b544328ae46dca71d95a3c~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_1000,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Navigating Hard Startup Decisions: Key Takeaways from FlowMo’s Journey]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every entrepreneur knows that building a startup from scratch is a series of relentless choices. Some decisions are minor tweaks, while others can entirely shift the trajectory of your company. In a recent interview at the Sbur Decision Lab, Puck Fernsten sat down with Carter Powell and Juad, the co-founders of FlowMo—an AI operating layer for direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses—to discuss their path through bootstrapping, pivoting, and scaling. For founders attempting to navigate the...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/navigating-hard-startup-decisions-key-takeaways-from-flowmo-s-journey</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a7389932dc76a37da3853bb</guid><pubDate>Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:07:28 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DebvoV0RHjI" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Navigating the Noise: Key Startup Decisions from Helios Health’s Journey]]></title><description><![CDATA[As an entrepreneur, the path to building a successful company is rarely a straight line. Every day brings a barrage of choices, industry buzz, and internal dilemmas. In the latest feature from the Sbur Decision Lab, host Puck Fernsten sits down with Joel Francois, the CEO and founder of Helios Health, to unpack the realities of startup growth, the art of the pivot, and the power of alignment. Helios Health leverages psychometrics and AI to align clinicians with healthcare specialties based on...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/navigating-the-noise-key-startup-decisions-from-helios-health-s-journey</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a6d0bc528fffd9a048e5017</guid><pubDate>Fri, 31 Jul 2026 20:57:35 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Thck5-0uFkA" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[10 Traps for a Priced Round That Can Quietly Wreck a Startup: What every founder should read before signing a term sheet]]></title><description><![CDATA[Here's an uncomfortable truth: most founders don't get burned by a bad valuation. They get burned by a clause they never really understood, buried on page 14 of a document they skimmed the night before closing.  This can happen first in the Seed and Series A round, setting the tone for later rounds.   A company can raise millions, grow for years, and eventually sell for a number that sounds like a win — and the founders still walk away with almost nothing. Not because anyone lied to them....]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/10-traps-for-a-priced-round-that-can-quietly-wreck-a-startup-what-every-founder-should-read-before</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a694cb4eb310bed1189578f</guid><pubDate>Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:53:43 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cfe02c_cb8efb5b7ed3400da5bc169cfd7b5669~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_958,h_600,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[The Future of AI and the Hard Choices of the Solo Founder]]></title><description><![CDATA[Building a startup is rarely about taking the easy path. It is about defying conventional wisdom to build something optimized for tomorrow, rather than just settling for what works today. In a recent episode of the Sbur Decision Lab, Matt Phillips sat down with Elliot Greenblat—an MIT PhD and solo founder with 20 years of AI experience—to discuss his new venture, subindex.ai. Subindex AI is a platform designed to accurately generate, validate, and maintain large-scale research data sets for a...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/the-future-of-ai-and-the-hard-choices-of-the-solo-founder</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a69003eeb310bed118886ae</guid><pubDate>Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:18:58 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Building a Better Travel Experience: Hard Decisions and Pivots with TripSquee]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every entrepreneur knows that the path from a frustrating personal experience to a functioning startup is filled with difficult choices. In this episode of the Sbur Decision Lab, host Puck Fernsten sits down with Ray Bartlett, a lifelong travel writer and the founder of TripSquee, a travel application designed to shrink hours of tedious vacation planning down to just minutes. Ray shares his candid journey of building a startup, pitching a $1.5M seed round, and navigating the product decisions...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/building-a-better-travel-experience-hard-decisions-and-pivots-with-tripsquee</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a62511bb252e37e4d35aac2</guid><pubDate>Thu, 23 Jul 2026 17:39:02 GMT</pubDate><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[AI Disrupting College Education &#38; Job Market.  What Can College Students Do?]]></title><description><![CDATA[Lately, I have been hearing more concerns from friends about their children’s futures after graduation. These students attend some of the top schools in Boston. Additionally, numerous articles report that current college graduates are struggling to find jobs, and large companies are reducing their hiring for entry-level positions. AI is disrupting both the corporate job market and college education simultaneously. Instead of knowledge or skill-based, education is going to orient towards more...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/ai-disrupting-college-education-job-market-what-can-college-students-do</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a60a739362153aea0d64819</guid><pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2026 11:28:17 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cfe02c_a0b8360fe4d547a29e675b267c17ccf4~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_706,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Tony Zhang</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Top 9 Pre-Seed Capital Sources &#38; Their Pros and Cons]]></title><description><![CDATA["Every week I’m not funded is another week I risk shutting down—not because the business failed, but because I simply ran out of runway." That’s the brutal reality of the pre-seed stage, yet most fundraising advice ignores the specific, messy trade-offs you face right now.   Not all money is good money. This guide, based on Sbur founder and investor discussions (750+ founder members and 230+ in-person peer-to-peer advisory board meetings), breaks down exactly how to weigh speed, cost, and...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/top-9-pre-seed-capital-sources-their-pros-and-cons</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5e8a643a4e4248fffea0fb</guid><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 21:01:24 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="https://static.wixstatic.com/media/cfe02c_35b8a5137fee423c8e659e5c51639b2f~mv2.png/v1/fit/w_1000,h_588,al_c,q_80/file.png" length="0" type="image/png"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Grounding the Vision: Key Startup Lessons from Paper Table’s Customer Discovery Journey]]></title><description><![CDATA[Every entrepreneur starts with a vision. Whether inspired by a personal frustration or a massive gap in the market, the initial spark is what drives us to build. However, the true test of entrepreneurship isn't just about having a great idea—it’s about the willingness to step outside your own imagination, face cold hard data, and ground your business strategy in reality. In a recent episode of Sbur Decision Lab, host Tony Zhang sat down with Martin Jeon, the founder and CEO of paper table,...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/grounding-the-vision-key-startup-lessons-from-paper-table-s-customer-discovery-journey</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a5e73da6adee9ecb1611375</guid><pubDate>Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:18:09 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr6xQ4zvi_s" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Leveling the Playing Field: Lessons in Persistence and Precision with Alstrum]]></title><description><![CDATA[Entrepreneurship is often defined by the decisions made in the face of uncertainty. In a recent episode of the Sbur Decision Lab series, we sat down with Kai Francis Kaizuka, the solo founder of Alstrum, to explore how he is navigating the complex world of FinTech and capital markets. Kai is on a mission to democratize retail trading through his app, Strike, by providing everyday investors with the same institutional-grade data and real-time positioning insights used by major hedge funds....]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/leveling-the-playing-field-lessons-in-persistence-and-precision-with-alstrum</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a43170069b2dfbbf129ec7e</guid><pubDate>Tue, 30 Jun 2026 01:09:42 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0wdYpQPa7I" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item><item><title><![CDATA[Transforming Challenges into Breakthroughs: Insights from Mellicell]]></title><description><![CDATA[At Sbur Decision Lab, we feature entrepreneurs sharing their stories and decision-making processes so you can make smarter decisions and achieve success. Recently, we sat down with Ben Pope, co-founder of Mellicell, to discuss his journey in developing a revolutionary oral therapeutic targeting obesity, Alzheimer's, and Fragile X. Here are the key learning points and insights for entrepreneurs from our conversation: Finding Your "Why" Personal Connection Drives Passion: Ben’s motivation is...]]></description><link>https://blog.sbur.com/post/transforming-challenges-into-breakthroughs-insights-from-mellicell</link><guid isPermaLink="false">6a3d4bdb40b34fdeb1ef857e</guid><pubDate>Thu, 25 Jun 2026 15:40:25 GMT</pubDate><enclosure url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyqm8QVQTiw" length="0" type="video"/><dc:creator>Varnit Khanna</dc:creator></item></channel></rss>