Something I don't talk a lot about is that until early high school my family survived on section 8 housing and commodity food. Some people may recognize this can, but if you don't the tl;dr is it's the least appealing part of any commodity food box, whether you eat pork or not.

There was also a "Beef With Natural Juices" with a similar level of visual appeal. But, when you live below the poverty level...what you get is what you work with.

Since my parents were first and second generation immigrants that started over, we didn't have any wealth to speak of.

That meant that when things went badly (and when you're poor nearly anything unexpected goes badly) we were at a high risk for being on the street. My parents hid this from us, but it was present in all sorts of ways.

For example, when I was 11 or 12 a neighbor's dog chased me and I broke my arm hopping a fence.

We had no health insurance and my accident nearly destroyed our family, although I didn't know it at the time. I just thought getting a Raiders cast was cool, which, fortunately the doctor said no to because he knew that wouldn't be safe in the neighborhood we lived in.

Entrepreneurs have a lot of ideas. It’s easy to tell when you’re talking to one because they’ll come up with at least 2–3 business ideas in a half hour conversation on nearly anything.

But an idea is not the same thing as a business. In a startup the most important people are those who execute, who get shit done when others simply talk about it.

Something I’ve learned from both investors and experienced entrepreneurs is not to worry about keeping secrets in the early stages of a business.

There are exceptions — like security software or the first idea in a niche market— but for the most part ideas are worthless because everyone has them, and reaching 400,000 customers has a whole different set of concerns than reaching 40 (or 40,000, for that matter). It’s mostly the execution, and team, that matters.

So how do you know if the walk matches the talk? It’s a critical question if you’re investing, partnering, or considering working in a startup.

Here are a few things I’ve noticed about companies that are experiencing significant traction…