Leadership and Management
What Should You Do With Your Flawed Employees?
When you’re just starting out, you may have some members of your team that have serious issues. Ideally, you’d let the person go and find a replacement. But you may not have that option when you’re just starting out because the perfect fit for a given role may not want to join your startup yet.…
Read MoreWhy Your Startup Doesn’t Need A Board Of Directors
“How many people do I need on my the board?” I asked our attorney Marcia when I was incorporating our company. “You need to have a board of directors, but it doesn’t have to be large. In fact, you can be the only member of your board when you’re starting out.” “Really,” I answered. “The…
Read MoreIs It Cool For You And Your Startup Team To Take Vacations?
I once heard a CEO of a company that recently IPO’d say, “Work life balance? You’re running a startup. You can’t have work life balance. Just forget taking vacations.” I believe the thought process that you can’t take vacations and have a successful startup is wrong. You can take vacations and have a successful startup.…
Read MoreHow Profitable Does Your Startup Need To Be?
Of all the crazy, stupid, ridiculous things I’ve ever heard, I’d have to say this doozy from “Donald”, a very well known billionaire VC, has to be the craziest, stupidest thing ever: “I hate high margin businesses!” It just goes to show you how much things have changed when it comes to building companies. I’ll…
Read MoreWhy You Shouldn’t Build Your Startup To Be Acquired
There was a time in the late 1990’s when venture capitalists made a killing investing in semiconductor companies. The companies these VCs invested in were never meant to be companies built for the long term. Instead, these companies were meant to be flipped and sold quickly. The flipping of companies in the late 1990’s was…
Read MoreWhat Are The 5 Steps You Should Take To Have Great Meetings?
Do you waste too much time in meetings? Do too many of your meetings end up with no actions items? Or do too many of your meetings end up with everyone walking out frustrated? This video walks you through in five easy to follow steps a simple methodology that will help make your meetings much…
Read MoreHow Can You Use Goals To Push Your Team?
Contrary to popular opinion, your startup team is not going to work 18 hour days, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. You will burn your team out, and fast, if you push too hard. So what’s the right amount to push your team, so you’re getting an effort that your team can sustain?…
Read MoreWhat Do You Do When Your Cofounder Is Lying?
The one thing I’ve seen too much of coaching CEOs is problems with cofounders. The most likely problem you are going to face is what do you do when your cofounder is lying to you? I’ll explain the only thing you can do when your cofounder lies to you. More importantly, I walk you through…
Read MoreWhy Your Need To Keep Your Plans Secret Isn’t Important
“Why did you connect to Franz on LinkedIn?” I emailed my cofounder, “Ken”. Franz was a Senior VP at one of the largest distributors in North America for Semiconductors. We had just signed an agreement with Franz’s company, and I didn’t want it to leak to our largest competitor, Maxim. Ken and I had tons…
Read MoreWhat’s The Best Way To Motivate Your Sales Organization?
Getting your sales organization motivated to sell can be one of the most challenging problems you will face building your company. It’s a true chicken and egg problem. To scale your company’s sales, you need a great sales organization. However, to build a great sales organization, you need to show you have a product or…
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