It was around 5 PM on a Thursday. I was in my office, and I looked down at my to do list. Every item was checked off. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I literally had nothing to do. “This just can’t be right,” I said to myself.…
Every year, one of my VC investors would hold a “CEO Summit.” All the of the portfolio company CEOs would gather to network and listen to presentations from various people. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The final speaker on the final day was always Jack Dorsey of…
150. Remember this number because 150 turns out to be a pretty important number for organizational development. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] 150 is called Dunbar’s Number (read Malcom Gladwell’s Tipping Pointfor more). 150 is considered the maximum number of people that can work together with personal…
Successful companies usually have a way of doing things. We certainly did when I was at Maxim Integrated Products. Jack Gifford, our CEO, called it “The Maxim way.” And our way was successful. The company grew to $2 billion/year in revenue with close to 40% net margins. It was literally a cash machine. But, and…
“They brought up companies we didn’t even know existed,” Mike, the managing partner of the venture capital firm where I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR), said in our debrief after a startup pitched us. Everyone was impressed with the CEO, the company, and we decided to continue forward with the investment. Do you want…
“Bring us up to your level,” Ray, the CEO of Micrel, said to me in his office. Ray was pitching me on becoming general manager of one of the company’s three business units. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I smiled, we shook hands, and I left his…
“How am I going to raise $2 million,” “Casey” asked me. “I don’t know anyone who can give me that money.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “You know more people than you think,” I said. “I’ve been down this road a few times, and the other entrepreneurs…
Successful companies usually have a way of doing things. We certainly did when I was at Maxim Integrated Products. Jack Gifford, our CEO, called it “The Maxim way.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] And our way was successful. The company grew to $1 billion/year in revenue with…
I remember there were six of us after we closed our funding. Myself, my four co-founders, and our operations manager Dave. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Two weeks later Sid joined as our design engineering director. Within two months we added three more design engineers bringing us…
I was having lunch with my friend Matt. Matt was, at the time, a Senior VP at Maxim Integrated Products and Maxim was our largest competitor. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I had sold my company about four months earlier, and we were just catching up. He…