“Do you know who Don Valentine is?” The investor asked me. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Of course,” I responded. We actually had a meeting the next week at Sequoia Capital, and Valentine, the legendary cofounder of Sequoia, was going to be in the meeting. “Well, Don…
The odds are decidedly against you, like 300:1 against you, when you try and raise money from VCs. So, you’d think hearing an investor tell you, “No, I’m not interested,” is the last thing you’d want to hear. Well, that’s exactly true. In fact, hearing “No” from an investor can be great. I’ll explain why,…
“I want to establish my board of directors,” “Allen” said to me. “What? Why would you want to do that?” I asked. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “I just think I need a board of directors. After all, we’re doing over $1M per year in revenue,” Allen…
One of the most brilliant technologists, if not the most brilliant technologist, ever in the analog semiconductor industry is Bob Dobkin. Dobkin, known as “Dobby,” was the co-founder of Linear Technology, one of the most successful startups ever in the analog semiconductor business. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
“That is sacrosanct,” one of our investors, “Raul”, said to me. I had just told Raul that we were going to perform a layoff as part of our next funding round. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Raul was pleased to hear me state the obvious. We needed…
My mind started racing. I was having a hard time trying to hide my excitement. Mike, the managing partner of a San Francisco based VC, had just asked me to help them start an Analog semiconductor company. In other words, Mike’s fund was going to provide the financial backing for my new company. [Do you…
There’s a lot of pressure on you when you’re raising funding. After all, the odds are over 100:1 against an investor funding you. I knew the odds were against us raising money, yet I never felt nervous. In this short video, I’ll share with you the mindset I used to successfully raise money during the…
“Would you mind telling me your stock option plan at Maxim?” Carlos, the VP HR at Micrel asked me. “I want to do some benchmarking.” I had just joined the company as General Manager of one of three divisions the company had, so I was glad to help. [Do you want to grow your business?…
Read The Video Transcript Below: Are you wondering what business books are essential during COVID-19? I just got back from my walk as you can see, let me pull this down. Okay, that’s much better. And look, there are a lot of books that are really good to read, but there are three essential…
…Especially in the aftermath of COVID-19 I was thrilled when Jeroen agreed to become my cofounder and VP Engineering. Jeroen was perfect for the role with his strong technical skills combined with his ability to recruit and manage a team. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] But we…