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What’s The Behavior You Can’t Have As A Founder?
“I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” “Serge”, the CEO of a struggling startup, said to me. “I think I’m going to give up.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “What?” I responded. Serge’s capitulation said didn’t register on me. It was foreign to my way…
Read MoreHow Should You Manage Your Stock Option Plan?
“I was expecting an offer of three percent,” Joe said to me. I’d been recruiting Joe since before we got our funding, and, now, two years after we closed our funding, we had offered Joe 0.75% stock options to become a Senior Scientist. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
Read MoreWho You Should Never Add As A Co-Founder?
“I just bought a unit in new The Millennium building, up in the City,” my co-founder, “Ken”, said to me. “You should check it out!” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “Really,” I said. “I thought you were going to buy a house on the peninsula, closer to…
Read MoreWhy You’re The Most Important Person In Your Company
“The engine that makes an Analog IC company go is a great VP Engineering or CTO,” I said to Dave, the VC partner I was working with when I was incubating my startup as an EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) at a VC fund in San Francisco. Then I continued, “Without a great VP Engineering we…
Read MoreHow You Can Make A Great First Impression In Less Than Seven Seconds
“Here’s a slide I think might be good,” the CEO said to us. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The CEO had just blown it. I mean completely blown it. I was working at a Venture Capital firm at the time, and we were sincerely interested in investing…
Read MoreHow You Can Win A Deal In Seven Seconds Or Less
“You didn’t have me at hello,” the investor said to us. “But I like what you’re doing. Let me think about this and get back to you.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. We had just finished presenting to a well known VC in our space. The VC…
Read MoreHow Do You Know If You’ll Be Successful?
When times were really rough, I would get Avery’s magic eight ball. I would ask it, “Do you think we’re going to make it?” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I would shake the eight ball and wait for the answer to appear in the triangle. The answer…
Read MoreWhat Is The Most Difficult Part About Building Your Startup?
“The hardest part of building our company will be raising the initial funding,” I naively said to my fellow cofounders. Every one of them nodded their heads in agreement. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I continued on with my pep talk. “We’ll be home free once the…
Read MoreHow Should You Start Your Company As A Solo Founder?
“Do you remember when we first met?” I said to “Ray,” the solo founder and CEO of a startup that I’ve been advising for over three years. “Yes,” Ray said. It was in that park where we went for a walk where we saw all those deer.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
Read MoreWhy You Should Hire Experienced Engineers
“I want to join your company Brett, but I have conditions,” Greg, one of top ten engineers on the planet in my industry, said to me. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I smiled. Then I said, “Okay, what are your conditions?” “Well, there’s really only one condition…
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