There’s a myth that you shouldn’t pay yourself anything when you’re just starting out as a startup CEO. I’m going to break that myth in this video. In fact, not only is it bad policy not to pay yourself first, it’s dangerous. I’ll explain why in this short video. Read The Video Transcript Below:…
“Brett, I wanted to let you know I am going to retire,” Dave said to me. “What? Why!” I said getting my bearings. “You can’t retire! You’re too young to retire.” “I don’t want to retire,” Dave said. “But I’m being pushed out by ‘Ted’.” Dave was a cofounder of Maxim. Our revenue was at…
I’ll never forget my cofounder and VP Engineering, “John”, telling me (and I’m paraphrasing here), “I don’t see what value you bring to the company.” I was focused on the marketing, strategy, and building the company. None of that mattered to John because he saw me as someone that wasn’t technical. But where is it…
Not all end markets are created equal. There are some end markets that are downright scary for startups to go after. And there are four end markets that are really tough. I’m not saying you can’t win if you are focused on these end markets, but I am saying that it’s going to be really…
“Hi Brett, it’s Steve. I know it’s been a while since we spoke, but I’d love to catch up with you to bring you up to speed on what we’re doing.” Then the voice message ended. “Well, Steve is persistent,” I said to myself, shaking my head. Steve was an entrepreneur I’d been introduced to…
Congratulations. You’ve gotten your startup to $1M/Year. Now the challenge is getting from to $10M/Year. The bad news is that you’re going to change a lot of things to get there. In this short video, I’lll walk you through five key areas of your company where you’ll likely have to change things up. I hope…
“Can you believe they just got bought for $300M!” Jeroen, my cofounder and VP Engineering said to me. Jeroen, who was usually pretty mild mannered, was a little pissed off. Before I could answer, Jeroen continued with his rant. “They haven’t even announced a product yet, and they have no revenue! It makes no sense.”…
In working with CEOs over the past several years, I’ve observed what separates the great CEOs from the merely good or bad CEOs. It comes down to four key traits these CEOs have that the others don’t. Watch this short video to get my take on what the great CEOs do. Plus watch till the…
Someone recently asked me a really good question, “What’s the difference between pitching investors and pitching customers?” He had just read my really popular post titled, “How To Successfully Pitch Your Business In One Slide?” In this short video, I’ll explain exactly how you should pitch customers compared to pitching investors. Read The Video Transcript…
If you want to build a great engineering team, then you have to get your equity grants right. And, you’ll blow it if you don’t this right. The good news is there are some rules you can follow to help you make good decisions about splitting your equity. I’ll explain how in this short video.…