Mounted on a picture frame on my office wall is a check endorsed to me for $0.01 that were the proceeds of shares I held in a telecom startup I joined in 2000. I left one startup to join this one during the dot-com and telecom boom, hoping to strike it rich when it was scheduled to go public in three months. It never went public — instead, it was forced to take a drastic reverse stock split and cut in valuation when it went out for another round of investor funding.

I’ve now worked for four startups and will likely jump at the chance to join one if a promising one comes my way. But I will continue to keep that check as a reminder that there is nothing like a sure thing when it comes to a startup, that an IPO filing isn’t an IPO, and the promises of riches may never be realized.

With all this time spent working for startups or consulting with them, I thought a blog would be a great way to share my views on the exciting world or startups and entrepreneurship.

Eye on Startups is a companion blog to my website The Startup Guidebook that’s a work in progress – please feel free to check it out…

© Eye on Startups & The Startup Guidebook