“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…
You’ve just started your company, and you have no money. You know you need to build a team. However, you don’t see any way that you’re going to be able to build a team without any money or funding. It’s the ultimate catch-22. However, this is a solvable problem. In today’s video, I’m going to…
I had been building semiconductor businesses for almost twenty years when I started my company. I KNEW the playbook inside out about what to expect. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. Yet, I still got not one thing, but a lot of things really wrong when I was…
If you want your startup to get funded, then you’d better nail your competitive analysis slide. Your competitive analysis slide is an opportunity for you, the CEO, to shine. Yet sadly, too many CEOs do exactly the wrong thing and don’t take advantage of a golden opportunity. I don’t want that to happen to you. …
“VC Fund A just signed the term sheet,” “Ray” said to me this morning. “That’s great news! Congratulations. That’s a great achievement on your part,” I said. A month ago, things weren’t looking as good. His two existing investors were doing everything they could to prevent the round from closing. The valuation and deal terms…
The easy part about hiring a VP Engineering/CTO is finding a great technologist. Yes, that’s the easy part. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. However, you stand a really good chance of hiring the wrong person if you just look for a technologist. It turns out there are…
I’m working with a startup right now that has 50, that’s right 50, direct competitors. 48 of the 50 competitors are startups, and the two other competitors are well known public companies. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. That’s a lot of competition to say the least. The…
It’s 7:35AM and it’s cold in the office. I turn on the lights because I am the first person in the building. I walk into my office, plug in my computer, and I take a sip of my Starbucks. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. They got the…
I’ve never understood why investors don’t tell startup CEOs exactly what they want to see their portfolio companies present in a board meeting. Instead, startup CEOs are left to figure it out for themselves which leads to lots of problems including the board losing faith in the CEO. None of these problems are necessary. I’ve…