The email I wrote was scathing. Of course it would be. I was pissed off, and I channeled all of that anger into a spiteful, angry, yet eloquent email about how this was absolutely unacceptable, and if the client wanted to continue working with me then they would pay on time. By the time I […]

Do you have the courage to confront your fears? If you don’t, they will subconsciously influence your decisions and actions. These five fears are particularly important to acknowledge if you want to succeed with continuous improvement: 1. Fear of power loss 2. Fear of regret 3. Fear of losing face 4. Fear of falling behind […]

Taking a leap of faith to start a career in freelancing is daunting, but Career Contessa shares how one freelancer survived the dark days.  Last Friday was a tough day. I was in the kind of mood that’s hard to snap out of. I found myself falling victim to the stress and anxieties that anyone […]

The process of leaving the known and stepping into uncertainty is a persistent conversation among founders and also established organizations. Game-changing ideas and innovations often occur amidst that realm of uncertainty. Co-founders Justin Brown and Mark Bakacs decided to embark on that journey in September 2012 when they quit their occupations and committed entirely to […]

Silicon Valley’s “fail fast” mentality sounds exciting: Go big, or go home! The problem, of course, is that failure isn’t appealing. It’s hard, painful, and, in certain cases, career-ending. But if success is better than failure, why do so many startups flame out? A recent study by CB Insights found that most startups fail because […]

Meeting a potential business contact for a drink can be a stressful affair. Where should we meet? How much time is this going to take? How do I leave the conversation without being rude? During my first year of entrepreneurship, I went to about 100 meetings (literally, I counted) with strangers whom I was hoping […]

When Adam Brown began GrubLife, a company dedicated to connecting college students with local businesses (think Groupon-on campus), time and time again he interacted with businesses that were having trouble navigating social media platforms. This was a major impediment, as they couldn’t appeal to their tech savvy customers. Size didn’t matter: companies both large and […]

Thanks to the startup ecosystem, San Francisco is an engineering capital of the world. Or, is it the other way around? Everywhere you look, software startups are popping up that are innovating every industry under the sun — a quick search on CrunchBase lists over 1,000 within one mile from my company Nitro’s headquarters in […]