What’s The Best Use Of Your Excess Cash?
“If you give a startup $1 million, they’ll find a way to spend it,” my friend and VC, Dave said to me early on in my company’s life. Then he delivered the punch line. “If you give a startup $10 million, they’ll find a way to spend that too!” [Do you want to grow your…
5 Avoidable Marketing Mistakes That Can Kill Your Startup
Let me ask you a question. If you had a machine where you could put money into the machine, and for every dollar you put in you got three dollars back, wouldn’t you be stuffing money into that machine as fast as you could? Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help.…
Why Trying To Limit Your Investors Ownership Doesn’t Matter
One of the greatest lines in movie history was said in the classic, All The President’s Men. The line is, “Follow the money.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The idea was that if you traced the trail of money, you would find out who was behind the Watergate break-in.…
Is It Really Worth It To Be A Startup CEO?
“Are you having fun?” Bob Dobkin, our only angel investor, asked me when I was giving him an update on our progress about two months after we closed our Series A funding. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe can I help. Click here.] Bob was the co-founder and CTO/VP Engineering of Linear Technology.…
What Should Your Mindset Be As A Startup CEO?
To: Past Self From: Future Self Subject: If I knew then what I know now Hey, it’s your older and wiser self. Somehow or other, despite all your screw ups, you made it! You’re done. You’ve achieved your dream of starting, building, and leading a company from scratch. Do you want to grow your business?…
How Do You Overcome Investor Objections In One Slide?
Every VC or customer, or potential employee you ever meet with has reasons why they say no to the deal, no to closing the sale, or no to signing up to work with you. The question is how do you overcome these objectives to close? In today’s short video, I’m going to show you how…
How Should You Manage Your Board Of Directors?
“Never surprise your board,” my friend and mentor, Dave, said to me. We were meeting for coffee at Peets in Palo Alto four weeks before my first board meeting as a startup CEO. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I nodded my head because Dave’s advice sounded sage.…
Why Your 51% Ownership Guarantees You Nothing
You know the scene in The Social Network where Eduardo meets with Peter Theil’s attorney for the first time. The attorney casually mentions that Mark Zuckerberg’s equity will be over 50% ownership, and Eduardo, sagely, says, “That’s good because Mark needs to be protected?” Yeah, that scene. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
Why You Should Offer Your Team Unlimited Time Off
One of the smartest things we ever did was offer our employees unlimited vacation. I know it sounds crazy for startups to tell their employees they can take as much time off as they want, but it’s really not crazy at all. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.…
How Do You Really Feel As A Startup CEO?
I’d love to sit here telling you that being a CEO was great, and it was great. Truly, truly great. However, I’d be lying if I told you there was only one feeling I had being CEO. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] There were times I felt…