I’ll never forget it. The second I answered the investor’s question I wanted to take back my answer. I had stepped right into his trap. The worst part was I knew better and I still screwed. I don’t want that to happen to you. That’s why I’ll teach you how to answer the five most…
Do you want a highly motivated team? Well, then you need to walk the walk, and talk the talk every single day. It’s easy to motivated and enthusiastic when things are going well. The true test of a CEO is how the CEO reacts when things aren’t going well. [Do you want to grow your…
I remember having a conversation with my Dad when I became an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) at a San Francisco based venture capital firm. The VC firm had hired me to build a company, and we were just about ready to start raising money. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help.…
I thought I was so smart when we were starting our startup. However, for someone who was allegedly smart and experienced, I certainly had a knack of focusing on the wrong things. Sometimes, as I look back, it’s amazing we were able to get the company off the ground. I don’t want you to…
There’s a great story about how Earl Woods, Tiger Woods father, taught Tiger about how to be cool under pressure. In golf, the audience is supposed to be quiet while a player prepares to hit the golf ball. Earl turned everything upside to teach his young son. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
I was in my 40’s when we raised our initial funding. I was the youngest of my four co-founders. The oldest co-founder was over 60 years old. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. Yet, we were able to raise $12 million in funding. Three years later, with an…
Imagine this scene. You’ve just finished your investor pitch, and you think the pitch has gone well. However, you don’t know what to say. More importantly, you don’t know how to ask investors for the money you need. As surprising as it sounds, I’ve witnessed hundreds of startup CEOs not know how to ask for…
“I want missionaries, not mercenaries,” The CEO of a startup I am working with, “Jeff,” said to me the other day. He was frustrated because his VP Sales just asked to increase his base salary, that was at the market rate, by over $100,000 per year. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I…
“I think each of the founders should have a company credit card,” “Randy,” one of my co-founders said during an early staff meeting. “it will ease some of the burden on you.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I could tell from the tone in Randy’s voice that…
The first term sheet I ever negotiated took just forty minutes in elapsed time to negotiate. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The longest a term sheet took to negotiate that I’ve been involved with was ten months. And the investor was the same investor in both…