In Potentially Risky Strategy, U.S. Startups Are Piling on Debt

Persado CEO Alex Vratskides could raise venture funding. He’s just not sure he wants to.

His New York-based startup doubled annual revenue this year and is on track to break even in 2017. Valued at about $200 million in April, the marketing automation company counts Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs among its backers — a source of validation in the eyes of many venture investors.

Dec 21, 2016 Lizette Chapman

Buzzwords: Elevator Pitch

It happens every time: I’ll be at a business event and someone will inevitably say that we all need to “perfect our elevator pitches” and launch into a rote explanation (an elevator pitch of the elevator pitch, if you will). Cue the over-exaggerated rolling of my eyes.

Dec 15, 2016 Robin Epley