More often than not, businesses are built upon loans. Without loans, the world of commerce would come to a grinding halt. If you plan to borrow or lend money, here are a few simple rules to live by:

Prior to spending a ton of time on a business plan or an investor deck, create a simple Haley Pitch. It's the most efficient way to obtain valuable feedback from advisors, mentors, and the critics you respect. You should be able to demonstrate that you have invested at least one hundred hours discussing prototypes, mockups, storyboards, or wireframes with potential users and/or customers.

I frequently get into discussions and debates with friends and founders about the viability of new products and services. Product scaffolding makes it easy for me to rapidly evaluate the opportunity size, branding, and believability (is it possible). In my experience, if you can’t describe your product or service using simple, harmonious product scaffolding, your venture will struggle.

In any business, a good manager should be able to tell you the ‘end-date’. The end-date is a hypothetical day in the future when cash reserves will run dry if expenses continually exceed revenues. Knowledge of the end-date is a huge (negative) motivator. When the boss says: "We need to generate X by next Thursday or else...", people respond like soldiers going to battle.

Here are some of this best startup articles I read in 2013:

A narrow value proposition does not equate to a narrow market opportunity, it's just harder to build.

In my experience, dividing ownership equally is mistake. Without fail, things always happen that prevent or enable project participants from contributing more or less resources than they originally pledged.  You want a plastic (cable of expanding and contracting) ownership structure that enables participants to contribute as much or as little as their ever-changing (financial, time, family, health, etc.) situation dictates.  A plastic ownership structure, governed by an ownership earn-in formula, is the best way to align motivation, commitment, value delivery, timing and expectations.