Hiring and Firing
How Do You Keep Your Best Employees From Quitting?
I worked at two companies in the same industry that had very different views on how to treat their employees. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The average time employees spent at the first company, Maxim Integrated Products, was over ten years. The average time employees spent at the second…
Read MoreWhat Titles Should You Give Your Technical Team?
I was fortunate to be involved with one of the most successful companies ever formed in the chip industry, Maxim Integrated Products. Maxim grew to over $2 billion/year in revenue, with net margins approaching 40%. It was a cash machine. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The company…
Read MoreHow You Should Think About Employee Compensation
“Hi Brett, it’s Carlos. Uh…” “What’s the issue, Carlos?” I asked our HR VP. “You know the salary you wanted to pay your new engineer, Fred? “Bob” (the CEO) wants to reduce it by $20,000.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “You’ve gotta be kidding,” I said. “I…
Read MoreWhat Are The Six Rules For Building A Great Team?
“Tell me, who are you going to bring with you?” I asked “Tommy,” the VP Sales candidate recommended by a couple members of our board of directors. “It’s going to be hard for me to bring anyone,” Tommy said to me. “The team is well compensated, so I don’t think they’ll leave.” Do you want…
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 MoreAre 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. I told Bruce I was considering a recent PhD of his to be VP Engineering of my company,…
Read MoreWhy You Need To Build Your Team Before Raising Money
Imagine this scenario. You have a great idea for a new startup. You’ve done the research, and maybe you’ve even talked to a few potential customers. There’s no doubt in your mind that this venture is poised to be a huge hit. So, you start reaching out to investors, and you get a couple of…
Read MoreHow Should You Decide Who You Should Lay Off?
“That is sacrosanct,” one of our investors, “Raul”, said to me. I had just told Raul that we were going to perform a layoff as part of our next funding round. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Raul was pleased to hear me state the obvious. We needed…
Read MoreWhy You Should Give Your Team Lots Of Equity
“Would you mind telling me your stock option plan at Maxim?” Carlos, the VP HR at Micrel asked me. “I want to do some benchmarking.” I had just joined the company as General Manager of one of three divisions the company had, so I was glad to help. [Do you want to grow your business?…
Read MoreWhy Cutting The Bottom 10% Of Your Team Is A Bad Idea
“Brett, I know you love Netflix’s culture document,” Jeroen, my cofounder and VP Engineering, said to me. “But I’m not sure I like the idea of firing our worst team members.” “I’m not sure I’m on board with that either,” I responded. “There must be a better way to do that (manage the quality of…
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