The Behavior Investors Can’t Stand In A CEO
“I don’t know if I can do this anymore,” “Serge”, the CEO of a struggling startup, said to me. “I think I’m going to give up.” “What?” I responded. Serge’s capitulation said didn’t register on me. It was foreign to my way of thinking. Worse yet, Serge’s company wasn’t doomed to fail. There was a…
What Do You Do When Your New Hire Gets A Counter Offer?
“How do you think Maxim (Integrated Products) will react when you resign?” I asked Jeroen. We had just signed a $12 million term sheet for our initial funding, and Jeroen and I had agreed that now was the time for him to resign and become our full time Vice President of Engineering. “I don’t know,”…
Who’s The Right Person To Be CEO?
“I’d like you to be the CEO of the company,” “Ray” said to me. We were meeting for the first time outside of a Starbucks in Los Altos. Ray had spent the previous thirty minutes explaining what his company was going to do. In fact, there wasn’t even a company at this point. There was…
How Much Money Should You Raise?
“We should be raising a $6 million round, not $12 million,” “Randy”, my co-founder, said to me. In fact, Randy was so pissed at the terms of our funding that he was threatening to quit. “Let’s meet, so I can walk you through why we are better off with the larger amount of funding,” I…
Can You Succeed Hiring B & C Level Talent?
“The talent level here is really high,” I said to the engineering candidate I was interviewing. “So, if you want to work with the best of the best, you should join us.” I was the last person to interview Melind, the closer, so to speak. Jeroen, my co-founder and VP Engineering told me that he…
The Five Advantages You Have As An Older Entrepreneur
“Nothing seems to faze you,” “Raul”, one of my investors said to me during our 1:1 meeting in his office. He’d been an investor in our company for one year. Raul was pretty crusty, so I considered what he said to be a compliment. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help.…
Who You Should Never Add As A Co-Founder?
“I just bought a unit in new The Millennium building, up in the City,” my co-founder, “Ken”, said to me. “You should check it out!” “Really,” I said. “I thought you were going to buy a house on the peninsula, closer to where our future office will be?” “Nope,” Ken said, laughing. “The Millennium was…
How You Shouldn’t Write A Pitch Deck
There’s a huge difference between the question of “How long did it take you build your pitch deck?” and the question of “How long did it take you to build a successful pitch deck?” Our original pitch deck took, I don’t know, maybe 16 hours to complete. I just took a look at it for…
When Should You Start Paying Yourself?
There is a friend of mine, Mark, who started a company about four years ago. Mark raised angel funding to start his company. The company has grown at a nice clip, and the company has a real chance at long term success. At the same time, Mark and his partner have taken a salary of…
What Makes A Great CTO Great?
One of my biggest mistakes ever was adding “John” as my co-founder and VP Engineering/CTO. Now, I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that John wasn’t that great of an engineer, and he failed as our CTO because his engineering skills weren’t that good. John’s engineering skills were as good as I thought they’d be,…