How 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?…
How 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? But this near death experience was different. I survived this near death experience not…
What Should You Steal From Your Competitors?
Our go to market strategy for starting our company was based on copying our competitors. Right down to the part number, the specifications, and the data sheets, that’s exactly what we intended to do. I told an interviewer when we came out of stealth mode and launched our first set of products that companies in…
What 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…
How You Can Win A Deal In Seven Seconds Or Less
“You didn’t have me at hello,” the investor said to us. “But I like what you’re doing. Let me think about this and get back to you.” We had just finished presenting to a well known VC in our space. The VC was telegraphing that he was going to pass on investing in our company.…
How Do You Tell Investors Why You Will Beat Your Competitors?
“They brought up companies we didn’t even know existed,” Mike said in our debrief after a startup pitched to the Venture Capital partnership where I was an Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR). Everyone was impressed with the CEO, the company, and we decided to continue forward with the investment. There’s a natural tendency when you’re asked…
How You Should Tell Potential Investors About Your Problems?
Your natural tendency when you’re raising money is hoping your potential investors will not find the weak points and problems in your company. The reality is that experienced investors are likely going to find your weaknesses. So what should you do? Should you hope that investors don’t find you weaknesses, or should you wait for…
How Do You Know You’ve Got A Great Startup Idea?
“You want to do what?” The investor said to me. “It seems like financial engineering. Why don’t you just skip that phase and get right to the unique products?” The investor didn’t get it. We had a two part strategy that had proven to be successful previously. I didn’t need to wait for the rejection…
Why 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…
What’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…