The Smart Startup

About the Smart Startup Guide

Raising capital from strangers is not only one of the hardest things an entrepreneur can ever attempt to do, it's also one of the most unpleasant activities imaginable for most of us. Very few people enjoy the process of knocking on doors with cap in hand asking total strangers for money.The only real way to ensure that you will get respect from investors and have the discretion to "no thanks" to a bad deal is if you can create some traction in the marketplace first. Traction, which is defined as bona fide sales to paying customers, goes a long way to providing you with both.

As the old Rodney Dangerfield joke goes, entrepreneurial wannabes with nothing but a business plan "get no respect."

But you probably know all this by now. That's how you probably ended up on this website. Perhaps a venture capitalist or angel investor recommended that you get the Smart Startup Guide and come back in six months? 

The Smart Startup Guide is designed for anyone wishing to start a business and not just for venture capital seekers.

About Peter Ireland

Since the early 1980s, Peter been starting and growing successful businesses. His first entrepreneurial initiative was  a student operated painting service begun in his freshman year. Over the next three years this company grew into a national franchise which Peter sold upon graduation.

Since college, Peter has held executive positions with a number of corporations, both private and publicly-held. In 1988 Peter became a partner in Ashton Montana & Company a management consultancy providing financial and marketing services to technology companies. Afterwards, Peter served for over three years as CEO of Leisuretech Corp., a publicly-traded company. He spent another four years managing CalWest an innovative venture fund geared towards start-up companies. During the late 1990s he was involved with a number of Seattle-based online companies, including CBeX which became the premiere mergers & acquisitions site of the last millennium.

In addition to his own entrepreneurial forays, Peter has assisted numerous technology companies in selling themselves to investors, acquirers, and the public via IPO.

He has appeared numerous times on television, radio, and in print media to discuss various topics relating to entrepreneurship and creative financing for startups.This site has been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal, CNN Money, and other publications. Peter graduated from Simon Fraser University, one of Canada's top business schools.

Currently, Peter is actively engaged in acquiring businesses particularly those with renewable energy related technologies. He also devotes five hours per week to serving as an advisor to other entrepreneurs conducting acquisitions.

Be sure to check out the new Billionaire Strategies Course for deal-makers.

About Billionaire Strategies

So you are interested in becoming a billionare? Despite the catchy title, this is a dead serious course for entrepreneurs interested in learning how to grow faster through deal-making and business acquisitions.

The majority of self-made billionaires made and still make their fortunes through wheeling & dealing in assets. These assets are businesses in most cases. To a lesser degree they are real estate. This course is focused on how to buy a business. More specifically, it reveals in detail how billionaires build deal-making machines that acquire a lot of businesses, sometimes numbering in the hundreds, over the course of their careers. Many of them keep going into their nineties because it's exhilarating and fun in direct contrast to building the same business day-after-day ad nauseam.

Be forewarned that this course is for the hard core only. Raiders and buccaneers only please. This is not for the timid.

I only wish that I had written this 20 years ago. However, you can now start your career off with an in-depth knowledge of their strategies and tactics. Think of the advantage you will have over your competition.