Some interesting links we found across the web this week:

How Can I Creatively Pay My First Employees?
Having service providers work for “free” on a regular basis can lead to frustrated employees who cannot pay their bills. This AlleyWatch article discusses ways in which startups can always try to incorporate some level of cash compensation, even if it’s incredibly small, to help offset the cost of life that team members will inevitably face.

5 Keys to Vetting Investors Before You Accept Funding 
All investors are not the same and companies must consider a variety of factors prior to taking in investments to ensure that the long term relationship with each investor will work on all levels. Such consideration requires entrepreneurs to conduct effective reverse due diligence prior to agreeing to accept investment from potential investors. This article from AlleyWatch highlights five steps to such diligence, including, getting perspective from peer investors and personally visiting another startup funded by the potential investor.

What Good Business Looks Like
As COVID-19 continues its advances, we’ve learned that these are the days of challenging dogma of how we understand the role of business in our societies. This HBR article examines the growing clamor for more responsible and caring executives and how companies that want to survive must share the economic pain and strive to serve the greater good if they don’t want to risk  finding their brands and reputations permanently scarred.

Equity Crowdfunding: A Primer
Crowdfunding is an increasingly popular form of fundraising as it may allow founders to retain power over their business by letting them raise capital on their own and bypass institutional funding. This article by Business News Daily provides a primer for such crowdfunding, including a discussion of the various pros and cons of such an equity financing.

You Got Rejected by a VC, Now What? 
It is not uncommon for a venture capitalist firm to decline to fund a startup. Such rejection may happen for a variety of reasons, including a company being at too early or too late of a stage to become such a venture capitalist fund’s portfolio company. Additionally, in the COVID-19 days, getting a positive response from anyone seems like an impossible mission. This Crunchbase article discusses a few ways to react after an entrepreneur faces such rejection and ways in which one should not react.