You don’t know what to expect if you’ve never managed a Board of Directors meeting before. By the end of this video, you’re going to know exactly how to prepare for and manage your Board of Directors meetings. I know from my over 20 years of experience preparing, managing, and presenting to boards, that if…
“You’re being myopic, Brett.” That’s what Jack Gifford, the founding CEO of Maxim Integrated Products, used to like to say to me when we disagreed on something. I’m sure there was a modicum of truth in Jack’s words, especially early in our time working together. However, Gifford would always tell me that! And Gifford, for…
“If you can’t recruit, then you can’t be a manager.” Jack Gifford, the founding CEO of Maxim Integrated Products, said that to his management team over and over again as he built Maxim into one of the most successful companies in its space. The key, as I look back on my experience working at Maxim,…
Peter Thiel wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2014 that “Competition Is For Losers.” In other words, you can build a product that’s much better than anything else in the market that you don’t need to compete. That sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? The question is Peter Thiel right? I’ll give you my take…
Years ago, I was having coffee with my friend Alain, and somehow, we got on the subject of Elon Musk and Tesla. Alain, who was an original investor in Tesla, said, “Elon can simultaneously channel Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.” “That’s impressive,” I said. (You can watch Alain talk about Tesla and Elon here:) Think…
“What took you so long?” Every single time I’ve fired someone as CEO, someone on my team has asked me that question. Every. Single. Time. And, there’s a good reason I was asked that question. You see.. You, the CEO, almost always wait too long to fire someone. For example, I realized, about two months…
It’s surprisingly uncommon for your co-founder to want to be co-CEO with you. I had it happen to me, and I’ve had more than one CEO that I’ve worked with have a founder ask to be co-CEO. In this video, I’ll share my story and the story of “Bob”, a CEO I’m working with, of…
“Are you having fun?” Bob Dobkin, our only angel investor, asked me when I was giving him an update on our progress about two months after we closed our Series A funding. Bob was the co-founder and CTO/VP Engineering of Linear Technology. Linear was arguably the most successful analog semiconductor company of the last 30…
“I’m really impressed with your new CFO,” I said to “Kevin”, the CEO of a startup I’m working with. “I love his attitude, and I love what he had to say about joining your company.” “You don’t know the half of it,” Kevin said to me. “He’s (the new CFO) hit the ground running, and…
You just hired your new VP Sales six months ago, and now you’re beginning to wonder if you made a mistake. Your previous VP Sales only lasted three months, and now you’re worried that your board is going to lose confidence in you too. What should you do? In today’s video, we go through this…