Hiring and Firing
How Much Over Market Should You Pay Employees?
The days of expecting employees to work only for equity are long, long gone. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Early stage employees have a gotten a lot smarter and a lot savvier than twenty years ago. Your employees have options including working for large established companies. That means your…
Read MoreHow Should You Divide Equity As Your Company Grows?
-“Here’s what I think is fair for your role,” I said to “Ken,” one of my co-founders. Ken smiled, and said, “I was thinking the same number.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] We shook hands, and that was that. I had agreed to the equity for my…
Read MoreThe Five Non-Obvious Ways To Build Your Team
The most important indicator of whether your startup will succeed is your ability to build a high performance team. The performance of your team influences everything from your company culture, to your products, to your ability to sell and market your product. Try and do anything with a bad to mediocre team, and you’ll know…
Read MoreWhat Are The Biggest Recruiting Mistakes You Can Make At A Startup?
I’d have a lot of money if I could have a nickel for every mistake I’ve ever made. But if I could have a nickel for every recruiting mistake I’ve ever made, well, I’d have a fortune! Recruiting, of all the activities you have as CEO, is the most important. And recruiting is also the…
Read MoreThe Ten Things Startup CEOs Need For Success
I’ve built several businesses from zero to over $100 million, and I’ve worked with a lot of CEOs to help them grow their businesses too. Over and over again, the successful CEOs I’ve worked with have been able to master the same set of ten core skills. That’s what today’s video is all about. I’ll…
Read MoreBuilding An Early Stage Team With No Funding
You’ve just started your company, and you have no money. You know you need to build a team. However, you don’t see any way that you’re going to be able to build a team without any money or funding. It’s the ultimate catch-22. However, this is a solvable problem. In today’s video, I’m going to…
Read MoreWhat Interview Questions Should You Ask A Potential CTO?
The easy part about hiring a VP Engineering/CTO is finding a great technologist. Yes, that’s the easy part. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. However, you stand a really good chance of hiring the wrong person if you just look for a technologist. It turns out there are…
Read MoreWhy You Shouldn’t Have Too Many C-Level Executives
I was in the lobby of “Donald Ventures” office on Sand Hill Road after I completed my 1:1 with “Raul,” the partner leading DV’s investment in our company. One of the associates at the fund walked by me, and said hello. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I…
Read MoreHow Should You Keep Employees From Quitting
I was recently asked the question, “What should I do to keep an employee that has quit from leaving.” I was happy to answer the question because I have a perfect batting average as CEO of keeping employees from quitting. That’s right. 0.00%. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
Read MoreWhy You Should Interview Your First 50 Employees
There’s an old truism about that you, the CEO, should be spending at least fifty percent of your time recruiting. The reason recruiting is so important is your startup can’t grow unless you have great talent around you. That’s why I interviewed everyone we hired when we were just starting out. It didn’t matter whether…
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