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This Founder Thought He'd Discovered a Valuable Moon Rock. The Object Was Actually Worthless, But It Still Brought Him Immense Success.For entrepreneur Eric Lapp, founder of The Raleigh House, a cheap piece of iron slag was the key to his company's successful launch.

ByCheryl Snapp Conner

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

"Every growing company has one thing in common," a CPA said in the earlier stages of my startup career. "They perpetually need about $100,000 more than they have."

I laughed, knowingly. But in every startup I've been part of or have advised as a PR practitioner, the tongue-in-cheek remark has been true. In two of my partnerships, it even proved to be the ultimate deal-breaker, as my cofounder in each case attemped to take over as leader, with me in the role of perpetual-billable-hours-machine to fill in the gap.

Thankfully, I've learned better in the years since, and I've made a conscious effort to avoid inflicting this kind of "shortfall" job description or thinking on others. So how do you surmount the inevitable growth-stage shortage?

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