When Should You Start Paying Yourself?
There is a friend of mine, Mark, who started a company about four years ago. Mark raised angel funding to start his company. The company has grown at a nice clip, and the company has a real chance at long term success. At the same time, Mark and his partner have taken a salary of…
What Makes A Great CTO Great?
One of my biggest mistakes ever was adding “John” as my co-founder and VP Engineering/CTO. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that John wasn’t that great of an engineer, and he failed as our CTO because his engineering skills weren’t that good. John’s engineering skills were as good as I thought they’d be,…
How Do You Recruit The Very Best?
I was pumped beyond belief when I got the opportunity to become an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at a San Francisco based venture capital firm. I thought their backing me eliminated the concerns I had about raising money. However, I was still really worried because I knew I still had the bigger hurdle of building…
How Do You Determine Which Investor To Contact?
Years ago,I decided I the way to achieve my career goals was working at a Venture Capital backed startup. The problem was I didn’t know any venture capitalists. I went on the internet and built a spreadsheet of all the VC firms I wanted to meet with and every partner at the VC firm. The…
You’ll Fail If You’re In It Only For The Money
“I’m focusing on learning, not the grades,” Avery said to me the other day. She’s just starting her journey in college, so I couldn’t be happier to hear my daughter say that. “You got it!” I exclaimed. “The knowledge will stay with you forever. Plus, it’s the only thing you can directly control.” “I love…
Why Your Investors Don’t Need Control Of Your Board
“Brett, I need to have control of the board.” Who do you think said that to me? Was it a startup CEO, or was it an investor? Or was it both parties? It seems logical, doesn’t it as a first time CEO. You want control of the board, right? Because, if you control the board,…
How Should You Divide The Work?
I don’t know how I came to this thought process, but, from the beginning of my career, I thought it was a great idea to obsolete myself. Yeah, I know this sounds like it’s self destructive, and I guess in some organizations it is. However, my thought process was different. My thought process was that…
What Are The Two Biggest Mistakes That You Can Avoid?
“Do you have a vesting schedule for your co-founders equity?” I asked the CEO I was talking to. “No, I don’t,” he answered. “And how much equity does your co-founder have again?” I asked. “Uh, fifty percent,” the CEO answered. I sighed deeply. As the great business philosopher and baseball hall of famer, Yogi Berra,…
How Do You Make Working From Home Successful?
I think Elon Musk made a huge mistake. Yeah, you can be the master of the universe, the world’s richest person. Whatever. Yet, you can still screw up. And that’s exactly what I think old Elon did when he issued his, “Remote work is no longer acceptable”, email to his executive staff on May 31,…
The Real Reason Your Startup Will Fail
There’s a CB Insights study that you’ve likely seen about why startups fail. Their list is the classic, greatest hits, of why startups fail: Run out of cash No market need Got outcompeted Flawed business model Regulatory/legal challenges I could go on and on. But, I’m here to tell you none of these reasons are…