“How did you survive here?” I asked my friend Steve. We were having lunch about one month after I joined Micrel as general manager of the communications division of the company. Steve and I had known each other for years, and Steve was now my employee. He was the only competent direct report I had.…
One of the challenges CEOs face is,, when choosing from multiple ideas, that the best idea is selected. What makes this especially difficult is our natural tendency to shoot arrows at all new ideas. In this short video, I’m going to teach you a methodology that eliminates the negativity, AND, at the same time, strengthens…
“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…