When I worked at Maxim Integrated Products, we used to have our planning meetings over at the Peppermill restaurant in Cupertino. I think it’s gone now, but it was a great venue for us to meet at. The Peppermill was great because, well, there weren’t a lot of people in the restaurant at 8:30AM, so…
No One Tells You About There’s one slide that you should add to your pitch deck that no one tells you about. But, when you add it to your deck, it shows potential investors that you: Are Transparent Know the market and the competition Know your strengths and weaknesses You’ll be a great CEO to…
Before I launched my startup, I built an elaborate Excel spreadsheet to forecast how our company would grow. The spreadsheet had tabs for headcount, revenue by product, gross margin, rent, and cashflow. At the heart of the model, was the product revenue model. Since we were launching multiple products per year, this was the most…
I watched the CEO start his pitch, and, within 10 seconds, I knew he wasn’t going to get the partnership’s funding. You see, the CEO had committed one of the 10 mistakes that will kill your investor pitch. Raising angel funding or venture capital funding is hard. So, the last thing you want to do…
I was on edge. I couldn’t sleep. I hated going to the office. That’s how I felt before I took the necessary step of firing my co-founder. Unfortunately, over 50% of co-founder conflicts can not be resolved. I’ve built several businesses to greater than $100 million/year in revenue. And, I’ve helped many startup CEOs successfully…
There are a lot of studies you can find online that will give you the, alleged, data on why so many startups fail. The problem is the reasons cited are superficial at best. I’ve built several businesses to greater than $100 million/year in revenue. And, I’ve helped many startup CEOs successfully build their businesses. I’ve…
I remember when I started my company I thought I needed a board of advisors. After all, every other startup company that I looked at had an impressive list of advisors on their website. I thought, “this must be one of the keys to raising money. I’d better find my group of advisors.” So, I…
When you’re an entrepreneur raising money for your startup from angel investors or venture capitalists, the question that’s on your mind is, “How much equity should you give your investors?” It’s a tough question to answer because angel investors and venture capitalists negotiate term sheets every day and you don’t. I’ve raised over $100 million…
Malcolm Gladwell, in his landmark book, “Blink”, explained how you only have 7 seven short seconds to make a connection with your audience or you lose their attention. Microsoft did a study showing attention spans are only 8 seconds. That’s it. That’s all the time you get.
You launched your startup’s first product, and, now that it’s been in the market for a while, you can see it’s not scaling and you just don’t know why? In today’s video, I’m going to explain the likely reasons why your having trouble scaling and what you can do to fix it. I’ve launched hundreds…