“Most startups fail,” I said to the interviewer, Dave. “If I wanted the surest path to wealth, then I would have never left my corporate job.” “It’s a mug’s game then?” Dave, said to me. Then I started laughing. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Why are you…
I was thinking about my Dad this morning, and I was thinking about something he told me when I was raising our first round of funding. I was going on and on, as if I knew everything about startups, and I was telling my Dad that we absolutely, positively had to raise money from “Tier…
You’ll likely get advice telling you, the startup CEO, that you should have 1:1 meetings with your direct reports. Well, that’s good advice, but the question is what should you cover in these meetings? In this short video, I’ll walk you through the five questions you should ask in every 1:1 employee meeting you’ll have.…
“How long is the new funding going to last you?” I asked “Sam.” Sam said, “About one year.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “That’s not long enough,” I replied. You really want your funding to last 18 months. Ideally, you’d like your funding to last two years. “Why…
“You never know what’s going to come through the door,” Dave, a partner at the VC fund I worked at as an Entrepreneur in Residence, said to me. Then he continued by saying, “That’s one of the things I love about this work.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
There’s no denying Steve Jobs genius. He was maybe the most brilliant combination of product definer and marketer ever. But even Jobs made his share of mistakes. And the one I’m going to point out in this short video is one you absolutely, positively don’t want to make. Read The Video Transcript Below: …
“This is becoming a trend I do not like,” “Raul,” one of our investors, said to me during one of our board meetings about eight months into our company’s existence. Raul was referring to our engineering team being behind schedule. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] We were…
“Tell me, who are you going to bring with you?” I asked “Tommy,” the VP Sales candidate recommended by a couple members of our board of directors. “It’s going to be hard for me to bring anyone,” Tommy said to me. “The team is well compensated, so I don’t think they’ll leave.” Do you want…
If there’s one mistake I’ve seen startup CEOs make over and over again, it’s focusing on finding creative ways to stay CEO. So, the startup CEO focuses on different classes of stock, voting rights, and other crazy schemes. Trying to stay CEO is waste of your time. In fact, not only is this the wrong…
“How do you know your product is going to sell?” I asked “Joe,” the entrepreneur I was speaking with. “I just know it’s going to sell,” was Joe’s response. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Have you spoken with any customers yet?” “No, I don’t need to,” Joe…