How Do You Know If You’ll Be Successful?
When times were really rough, I would get Avery’s magic eight ball. I would ask it, “Do you think we’re going to make it?” I would shake the eight ball and wait for the answer to appear in the triangle. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] The answer came…
What’s The One Business Book You Have To Read?
What’s The One Business Book You Have To Read? By Brett Fox There are a lot of great business books out there. But there’s only one business book that you have to read regardless of your business. And many people don’t even consider this must-read a business book. Watch this short three minute video to…
What Are The Huge Advantages Of Being Late To Market?
What Are The Huge Advantages Of Being Late To Market? By Brett Fox Being first to market is the holy grail when you’re starting a business. So it can be soul-crushing when you find out a competitor got there before you. But all is not lost. In fact, maybe you’re better off being second, third,…
How The Impact Of Your Decisions Can Multiply Over Time
“Well, it seems to me you have a choice to make,” my friend and mentor Dave said to me. We were having our monthly coffee meeting. We usually met at Peets in Town and Country Center off of El Camino in Palo Alto. It was May and the weather was nice, so we were sitting…
How Long Should It Take Your Company To Get To Break Even?
In today’s world of “just grow baby, grow”, the break even point for startups can be all over the map. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Maybe you get to break even at a run rate of $1M/year. Maybe, like Uber, you can have revenue in the billions…
What Should Be Your First Steps Once You’ve Got A Great Idea?
What Should Be Your First Steps Once You’ve Got A Great Idea? By Brett Fox You’ve got a great idea for a new business. No what do you do next? Taking a little bit of time to figure out exactly what you’ve got, and whether it even makes sense to go forward, is a smart…
Who Should You Consider To Be Called A Cofounder?
I have a really simple rule for who is a founder and who isn’t a founder. If the person joins before the company receives funding, then the person is a founder. The amount of work, modeling, planing, and strategy you’ve done are irrelevant. Ego and greed are the enemy of success when it comes to…
How Can You Take Vacations And Work Hard As A Startup CEO?
I’ll never forget being at a CEO conference organized by one of our investors. One of the speakers was an extremely famous CEO. The CEO was rambling on and on. Then, out of nowhere, he said, “I work 16 hours a day, seven days a week.” My head snapped straight up. I wanted to scream,…
Who Should You Talk To About Your Problems As CEO?
Who Should You Talk To About Your Problems As CEO? By Brett Fox Being a CEO is great; at least for me it was. The biggest challenge I had is a surprising one: Who do you talk to about your problems when you’re the CEO? It’s not as obvious as you might think. Watch this…
How Should You Protect Your Idea Before You Raise Funding?
No steps are necessary to protect your ideas before you pitch to VCs except for one. I’ll get back to that later. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] But first, a story: “We can stop right there,” the VC said to my cofounder “John”. John, to my surprise,…