I have a really simple rule for who is a founder and who isn’t a founder. If the person joins before the company receives funding, then the person is a founder. The amount of work, modeling, planing, and strategy you’ve done are irrelevant. Ego and greed are the enemy of success when it comes to…
I’ll never forget being at a CEO conference organized by one of our investors. One of the speakers was an extremely famous CEO. The CEO was rambling on and on. Then, out of nowhere, he said, “I work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.” My head snapped straight up. I wanted to scream,…
Who Should You Talk To About Your Problems As CEO? By Brett Fox Being a CEO is great; at least for me it was. The biggest challenge I had is a surprising one: Who do you talk to about your problems when you’re the CEO? It’s not as obvious as you might think. Watch this…
No steps are necessary to protect your ideas before you pitch to VCs except for one. I’ll get back to that later. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] But first, a story: “We can stop right there,” the VC said to my cofounder “John”. John, to my surprise,…
We needed to raise money, lots and lots of money, right of the gate. The money we needed to raise ($11M) wasn’t the kind of money that most people have laying around. I sure didn’t. But there’s the reality that even if you need lots of money, you’re going to end up putting your own…
“It’s even worse than I thought it would be,” I told Steve. “Everything is completely broken. Revenue is cratering. Product quality is horrible. The strategy sucks. And I think the team needs be completely replaced…. “Besides that, everything’s great,” I laughed. I had taken over one of three divisions the company had three months prior.…
“I think we should shut down the company,” “Raul”, one of our two investors, said to me during our board meeting. We were in the middle of raising our Series B funding, and we already had one term sheet in hand. Raul had rejected the term sheet after initially accepting it. [Do you want to…
I read a really great book called, “The Fish That The Whale.” The book is about the life of entrepreneur Sam Zemurray. The book is a great and entertaining read, and it is packed with lessons for entrepreneurs. Zemurray, also known as “Sam, the Banana Man,” was the founder and CEO of Cuyamel Fruit Company…
One of the investors in my company described equity as “fuel” for growth and debt as a “retardant” to growth. I don’t think I agree with him. I think the right answer is more about what’s right for you and your company. There is a better way to look at what’s right for you. I’ll…
“What am I likely to hear about you from the people I talk to about you?” That’s was the standard question I asked potential candidates BEFORE I would do front door and backdoor reference checks. Then I would listen to hear what came back from the candidate. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I…