Hiring and Firing
Are You Better Off With An Older Team or A Younger Team?
“So, you’re thinking of going the young route,” Bruce Wooley, who was the dean of the electrical engineering department at Stanford, said to me. One of Bruce’s past students had introduced us, and we were having coffee. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I told Bruce I was…
Read MoreWhat Are The Six Rules For Building Loyal Teams
“It was my fault. I screwed up,” I told Maxim Integrated Products CEO, Jack Gifford. “You should be screaming at me, not him!” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I didn’t want Steve (my boss) to take the beating for my screw-up. I wanted Gifford to tear into…
Read MoreWhat Are The Warning Signs Of A Bad Co-Founder?
Do you think it’s a good idea to propose marriage after your second date? Good, I didn’t think so. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The best analogy for deciding on cofounders is dating. In fact, a cofounder relationship is more intense than a marriage: You’re working in…
Read MoreWhat Are The Secrets To Building A 10X Engineering Team?
The first presentation I did about my company for the venture capital fund where I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR) was titled, “Where are the engineers?.” The point I was trying to drive home to the partnership was simple: The success or failure of my company would rest on our ability to recruit elite…
Read MoreWhy You Shouldn’t Hire Engineers That Are Jerks
No matter how good you think they might be, don’t do it! “Why are we interviewing this guy?” I asked Jeroen, our VP Engineering. “Look at his resume, he’s bounced from one company to the next.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “’Terry’s’ a really talented engineer,” Jeroen…
Read MoreWhen Should You Be Fired If You’re The CEO?
My wife was working at a start-up about ten years ago, and the company was doing really, really well. Revenue and customers were growing exponentially. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The CEO was a brilliant and charismatic leader. The management team was strong. It looked like everyone…
Read MoreHow Do You Know It’s Time To Fire Someone?
By Brett Fox at www.brettjfox.com “See that property over there? Steve Jobs owns it. That’s going to stay in his family for a long time,” Bill, Venture Capitalist, said to me. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I was being interviewed by Bill at his home in Woodside.…
Read MoreWhat You Need To Know About Reference Checks
I curled up on my bed in a fetal ball, sobbing. I kept repeating to myself: “What have I done?” “What have I done?” “What have I done?” Why was I crying? [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] We had been raising money for over eighteen months at…
Read MoreHow Do You Know It’s Time To Hire Your First Employee?
I’ve been working with “James” for about one year now. James is the CEO of a really cool company. Over the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of watching James grow his business to a pretty substantial level. Now, it’s finally time for James to hire his first employee. There’ve been the usual growing pains…
Read MoreHow Do You Build A Great Team?
“Brett, you look like you’re a million miles away,” my co-founder, “Randy”, said to me. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. Randy was right. I wasn’t focused at all on him. I was waiting for Tina, our Controller and HR Manager, to come into my office. “Where’s Tina?”…
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