Do you think it’s a good idea to propose marriage after your second date? Good, I didn’t think so. The best analogy for deciding on cofounders is dating. In fact, a cofounder relationship is more intense than a marriage: You’re working in a very stressful environment for most of your waking hours, and… Money is…
What Is The Best Way To Keep Your Equity As You Raise Funding? By Brett Fox I’ll never forget one of our investors saying to me, “There’s a certain percentage ownership you’re going to end up with, and there’s a certain percentage ownership we’re going to end up with. “The rest of it doesn’t matter.”…
How Do You Build A Great Founding Team? By Brett Fox The average age of the engineering team at my company was 44 years old. The engineering averaged 20 years of experience per engineer, and the engineers on average had 10 patents. The team, by industry standards, was considered elite. Now, I assume you want…
There is a one-word answer for why so many former engineers are now CEOs of technology companies. And that one-word answer is: Respect. Simply put, being an engineer running a technology company gives you some tremendous advantages: A. You engineering team will be more likely to respect you. Engineers like working with people that understand…
You work really hard for years building your company. And you’re burning through your savings as you build your company. Finally, finally you get your company to cash flow positive. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Thank goodness,” you say to yourself. “We’re finally free of needing more…
What Skills Should You Learn As An Entrepreneur? By Brett Fox Someone just messaged me this: “Hey Brett, I’m just about to start a company. What do I need to know to be successful?” Here’s my answer: I don’t know whether these are learned skills or traits you are born with, but these are the…
What Is The One Personality Trait That Prevents You From Working With Someone? By Brett Fox “I don’t understand why your cash position is going down,” I said to the CEO “James”. We were going through our bi-weekly review of his company. The revenue was growing, and the company should have been cash flow positive.…
My wife was working at a start-up about 10 years ago, and the company was doing really, really well. Revenue and customers were growing exponentially. The CEO was a brilliant and charismatic leader. The management team was strong. It looked like everyone involved was going to win. Then, for some inexplicable reason, the Board fired…
What Is The Best Way To Get Introduced To Potential Investors? By Brett Fox I’m sorry, but it’s very rare that investors are going to come to you. You can try sitting back and waiting, but I certainly wouldn’t advise that approach. I can only tell you what I did which was the old fashioned…
I’ve come to a conclusion in the past few weeks. It’s a stunner. At least to me it is. What’s my conclusion you ask? [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I’ve concluded that I’m a horrible manager. Maybe even the worst manager ever. Okay. Maybe horrible is too…