Yes, VCs do invest in ideas, but it’s really, really, really hard to get an investment based on an idea. And I think it’s getting harder now then when I did it. Having said that, I am working with an entrepreneur that raised VC funding this year based on an idea. How did he do…
I celebrated my birthday two months after I started working at Maxim. My boss, Ziya Boyacigiller, took me out to lunch. I can’t remember where we went to lunch, but it was probably sushi since Ziya and I liked sushi. However, I do remember the book Ziya gave me for my birthday. The book was…
How To Get Your Message Across Before You Lose Your Audience By Brett Fox It doesn’t matter whether you are raising money, recruiting a new employee, or talking to customers, getting your message across fast is critical. I’ll explain exactly how you can master this important skill in this short video. Read the video…
How Quickly Do You Know You’ve Hired The Wrong Executive? By Brett Fox “I’m playing hurt, Brett,” Our VP Sales, “Tom”, said to me. Tom had just joined the company the week before, and now he was telling me that he couldn’t travel because of a knee injury that had bothering him for months. “Why…
“Are you having fun?” Bob, our one and only angel investor asked me after we got funded. “I’m having the time of my life,” I told Bob. And it was true. I was having the time of my life. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I had been…
Why Your High IQ Isn’t A Guarantee Of Success By Brett Fox I used to think that all successful CEOs Were Really Smart. And many successful CEOs are really smart. However, IQ isn’t a guarantee of success. In fact, there’s another personal trait that’s a lot more important than IQ. I’ll explain what that is…
The biggest one shot deal I ever won was a $25M/Year custom deal we did with Lucent. We had been doing business with Lucent optical module division in the UK and Pennsylvania for years. In fact, we were getting all of their business. However, we couldn’t crack Lucent’s box business. We had significantly better products…
“Equity is like jet fuel for a startup,” Gill, one of our investors, said to me one day. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe i can help. Click here.] In our case, not only was early stage funding jet fuel, early stage funding was absolutely necessary. Why? Well, unless you have $20M-$30M lying around, it’s…
What Are The Top Three Values You Need In Business? By Brett Fox Just like in real estate, where location, location, location is all that matters, there really is one value you need in business? What is that value? Watch this one minute video to find out. Read The Video Transcript Below: So…
I remember when the VP Engineering of the company that I was working at became VP of Sales. The CEO was grooming him to eventually become his successor. The new VP of Sales and I were visiting Compaq Computer (that tells you how long ago this was), and the VP of Sales asked me, “Why…