Leadership and Management
How Much Sleep Do You Really Need To Be Effective?
I wake up, and I look at the clock. It’s 2:14 AM. I had gone to sleep at midnight, and here I was, awake two hours later. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Maybe this time, I’ll be able to break the pattern and go back to sleep,” I…
Read MoreHow Much Luck Do You Need To Be Successful?
“How many lives do I have left?” I asked myself. My goodness, I’d already survived a ton of near-death experiences, yet we hadn’t even released a product or gotten any funding. Maybe the startup gods were trying to tell me something? Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. But…
Read MoreHow Many Startups Can You Run At Once?
“I’m managing three companies,” “Jason” said to me. It was our first conversation, and warning lights started going off. “Tell me about the three companies?” I said. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Jason said, “The first company is a software company which is doing about $5 million…
Read MoreHow Many Hours Should You Work Weekly As The CEO?
It was around 5 PM on a Thursday. I was in my office, and I looked down at my to do list. Every item was checked off. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I literally had nothing to do. “This just can’t be right,” I said to myself.…
Read MoreHow Many Hours Per Week Should Your Team Work?
Every year, one of my VC investors would hold a “CEO Summit.” All the of the portfolio company CEOs would gather to network and listen to presentations from various people. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The final speaker on the final day was always Jack Dorsey of…
Read MoreHow Do You Turnaround And Rebuild Your Company?
“Bring us up to your level,” Ray, the CEO of Micrel, said to me in his office. Ray was pitching me on becoming general manager of one of the company’s three business units. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I smiled, we shook hands, and I left his…
Read MoreHow Do You Run Your Company As Headcount Grows?
I remember there were six of us after we closed our funding. Myself, my four co-founders, and our operations manager Dave. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Two weeks later Sid joined as our design engineering director. Within two months we added three more design engineers bringing us…
Read MoreHow Do You Keep Yourself From Getting Stuck?
I’ve been doing a lot of research on Steve Jobs lately. Did you know that he used to practice his Macworld and product launch presentations around 200 times before the big event? [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Watch any Jobs presentation and you’ll notice how smooth and effortless…
Read MoreHow Do You Keep Your Startup From Being Undercapitalized?
“How long is the new funding going to last you?” I asked “Sam.” Sam said, “About one year.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “That’s not long enough,” I replied. You really want your funding to last eighteen months. Ideally, you’d like your funding to last two years. “Why…
Read MoreHow Do You Develop Leadership Skills?
A couple lifetimes ago, I was working for a company where the CEO, “Bob”, liked to have a weekly operations meeting. A weekly operations meeting with the CEO and operations leader is pretty normal in a technology company. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. This CEO’s operations meeting…
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