The elephant in the room about the lean startup model that no one seems to dare talk about is this; you can only have an un-funded (or lean-funded) startup when your employees can work for little or no money. This therefore limits your employee pool to (a) people just out of school who have no expenses (but also no experience) and (b) people who are wealthy. The result is that these startups do not get the wisdom and experience of the large pool of people who have lots of experience and success. Yes, under the "lean" model investors are reducing their risk by putting less money into the venture. But investors are increasing their risks by excluding this pool of workers. Des Pieri www.ChangeAgentDes.com

Jeff, as always, an insightful post. Discouraging too. I think the solution is, as you noted, that we need to find the politician who is willing to take on this cause as Kennedy and McCain took on their causes. Maybe after we get past this election, one of them will be willing to take it on. Des www.ChangeAgentDes.com

Chip, great advice. Although it seems basic, I've seen so many entrepreneurs not follow it. People often shoot for a raise amount that is not tied to their milestones. And people often dismiss the importance of the long-term relationship with the VC. When I've gone in to clean up VC backed companies, the problems often go all the way back to a not-well-thought funding round. Des