“You’re at $5 million in revenue. Since we’re in the last quarter of the year, this is the perfect time to do some long term planning,” I said to “Kevin”, a CEO I’m working with. “What did you have in mind?” Kevin asked. “I love to go through the exercise every year of what does…
“He needs to understand that asking for more equity is like pulling on a string,” I said to Adolfo, my co-founder and VP Marketing. We were reviewing what offer package we should give a potential employee, and Adolfo was indicating the applicant wanted more equity. “What do you mean, Brett?” Adolfo asked me. “Let me…
“Do you think I would be better off stepping down as CEO?” “Wayne”, a CEO I’m working with, said to me. “My investors are offering to make me Executive Chairman or CTO. Maybe I should take the offer?” “I think it’s a huge mistake for you to step down,” I said. “I know there are…
The most successful startup I’m currently involved with is now worth $1.5 billion. They’re raising another $300 million as we speak, and they’ll likely be worth around $4 billion when the round closes. The company had one founder, “Ray.” The most successful company I’ve ever been in involved with was Maxim Integrated Products. I worked…
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…