How Do You Make The Most Out Of A Weak Team?
“Where did they find these people?” I asked my friend and employee, Steve. “We would have never hired them at Maxim (Integrated Products).” I was talking to Steve after I’d been at Micrel for a month as General Manager of one of the company’s three divisions. Steve had been at Micrel for two years,…
The 5 Steps For You To Create A Great Elevator Pitch
Malcolm Gladwell, in his landmark book, “Blink”, explained how you only have 7 seven short seconds to make a connection with your audience or you lose their attention. Microsoft did a study showing attention spans are only 8 seconds. That’s it. That’s all the time you get.
Is There A Right Way For You To Fire Someone?
There’s a great story in Ben Horowitz’s book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things”, that I can really relate to. In the book, Horowitz’s company, Opsware, was going to IPO. At the same time, they were going to perform a layoff. Horowitz was planning on being in New York for the IPO until one of…
The Real Reasons Your Startup Isn’t Scaling
You launched your startup’s first product, and, now that it’s been in the market for a while, you can see it’s not scaling and you just don’t know why? In today’s video, I’m going to explain the likely reasons why your having trouble scaling and what you can do to fix it. I’ve launched hundreds…
Why You Should Be Generous With Your Team
A few years ago, I was in the first board meeting for a startup that just closed its initial venture funding. The company’s founder, “Ray”, had been working with me since the company’s inception, and he asked me to be on the board. At the end of the board meeting, there was a discussion about…
How Does A Lack Of Funding Affect Your Company?
“Brett, we’re going to need to shutdown our advertising,” Tina, our controller, said to me. “We need to preserve our cash until we get more funding. Look at the cash flow (statement).” Tina and I were reviewing what we needed to do after one of our investors, the notorious “Donald Ventures”, pulled their support for…
The Hidden Secrets To Successfully Setting Goals
Venture Capitalist John Doerr famously said that the key to success is setting the right goals. And, of course, Doerr’s right. You do need to set the right goals to succeed. However, there are other things you need to do, in addition to setting the right goals, to succeed. That’s what today’s video is all…
How Do You Achieve Startup Success As A Contrarian?
Are you wondering if being a contrarian is the right strategy for startup success? That’s what I’m going to explain to you in today’s video. Being a contrarian is all about doing the opposite of what is expected. Zigging when everyone else is zagging. And depending upon whether you believe Jeff Bezos or Peter Thiel,…
How Often Should You Meet With Your Investors?
“That’s insane,” I said to “Kevin”, a CEO I am working with. “Your investors want you to have weekly meetings with them. Good luck with that.” “That’s too much?” Kevin said to me. “But the weekly meetings will just be updates, and there will be monthly board meetings.” I sighed. Kevin laughed and said, “Too…
How Do You Build A Tech Startup Without A Tech Background?
There’s an impressive list of non-technical founders that successfully built technology startups. The most notable being Steve Jobs. Now, I have a little experience as a non-technical founder of a technology company. Even though I have a BSEE, I hadn’t designed the products we were developing ( Analog Integrated Circuits) in years. So there was…