Author - Marco Johnson

December 6By Comments OffRead more...

Sparking Change: Sparkyard’s Move to Ensemble Coworking

After four years of successful implementation and thousands of entrepreneurs served, HSC Next is handing over operations of the Sparkyard platform to Tamara Payne, CEO and cofounder of Ensemble Coworking, a trusted partner in the local entrepreneurial ecosystem and a Sparkyard resource partner since 2019. Ensemble Coworking is a mission-driven collaborative business community and coworking space located in Fort Worth’s Near Southside. SourceLink will continue to support the platform from a technical standpoint. HSC Next is not selling Sparkyard, but rather, Ensemble will contract with Sourcelink, license HSC intellectual property related to Sparkyard and assume operating costs for the program. In...

July 19By Comments OffRead more...

When to Ask an Investor to Sign an NDA

Most of us have seen the movie The Social Network that shows how Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea for what eventually became Facebook. We know that entrepreneurs are protective of their ideas, but this scenario recalls the familiar adage in the startup world: ideas are cheap; execution is priceless. Zuckerberg didn’t just steal the idea. He actually improved the platform and made it work better. That’s execution. Investors care more about execution than ideas, so asking them to sign anything that protects your idea may actually do more harm than good.  When it comes to protecting intellectual property (IP), it makes...

March 16By Comments OffRead more...

Anatomy of a Pitch Deck

Pitch deck. Investor pitch. Slide deck. Presentation deck. There are a multitude of names for the same thing: a concise written and visual presentation of your company (or future company) that explains how you will change the world, on a small or big scale. We’ll refer to it as a pitch deck here. If you are an entrepreneur building a fast-scaling product or service based around some type of technology, then you MUST have a pitch deck, but we argue that most founders will benefit from developing one regardless of your company type.  According to Get Backed, a pitch deck serves...

January 26By Comments OffRead more...

Avoiding Cofounder Mistakes

We discuss the top mistakes that founding teams make that end up impeding or killing companies. We share advice for how to avoid these mistakes, general tips for finding a cofounder and setting up your founding team for success, and access to tools to help new cofounding teams.

January 4By Comments OffRead more...

Accessing the Right Capital at the Right Time to Grow Your Business

One of the first questions that entrepreneurs ask when they decide to launch a business is: where am I going to find the money to do this?   Sparkyard has the answer for you. Meet the Capital Growth Circuit. We developed this tool to help entrepreneurs answer this question no matter what stage their company is. Whether it’s an idea on the back of a napkin or an established company generating revenue, there are always sources of capital to help you get to the next level.   The structure may look familiar to people who are acquainted with our original Growth Circuit that charts...

August 26By Comments OffRead more...

Fort Worth-ophilia Part 2: Supporting Fort Worth’s Creative Class

In our previous post on Fort Worth-ophilia, we discussed what topophilia is, how a thriving creative class and high quality of life are positively correlated, and why a vibrant and supported creative class is the foundational ingredient for a thriving entrepreneurial community. In this post, we will identify ways we can all support our local creatives to make sure they stick around and fall in love with their city... in this case, Fort Worth.   Artists help define the identity of a community through their art and creating an authentic feeling that gives a community a unique look and feel. Our local...

February 18By Comments OffRead more...

GEW Fort Worth 2021 Overview

For the second year in a row, GEW Fort Worth was the largest GEW chapter in the USA with 135 sessions and over 4,700 attendees. After going fully virtual in 2020, our organizing team took the pulse of our community and determined that there was an appetite for both in-person and virtual events in 2021.