How Important Is It To Patent Your Intellectual Property?
“They own the fundamental patents on how to make an integrated circuit. We’re not going to sue them,” Dave Fullagar, Maxim’s cofounder and VP Engineering said to me. Dave was explaining to me the facts of life. I was a running Maxim’s interface business at the time, and Texas Instruments had just second sourced the…
What Are The Two Traits You Need As A Successful Leader?
I’ve worked with really good leaders, and I’ve worked with really bad leaders. Good leaders and bad leaders can get people to follow them because of the proximity to power. What’s the point. The better question is what traits must great leaders possess? And there are many traits you need if you want to…
What Should Your Sick Policy Be?
What Should Your Sick Policy Be? By Brett Fox I had a pretty simple policy regarding being sick: If you’re healthy you should come to work. If you’re sick, you should stay home. And I followed my sick policy as CEO as best I could. There were days when, no matter how badly I felt,…
Why Your Non Technical CEO Should Be Involved In Engineering
Why Your Non Technical CEO Should Be Involved In Engineering By Brett Fox I’m sorry, but I think you’re making a horrible mistake. Your CEO not only is justified in getting involved in the technical matters, your CEO, regardless of his technical background, should be getting involved in technical matters. More importantly, you should be…
How Do You Reach Customers Without Cold Calling?
How Do You Reach Customers Without Cold Calling? By Brett Fox There are so many different ways to reach customers that you don’t have to cold call. Yes, there are the obvious ones like advertising on Google, Facebook or even here on Quora. Here are some non-obvious marketing channels I’ve seen work to gain traction:…
What Is The One Book Everyone In Your Company Should Read?
What Is The One Book Everyone In Your Company Should Read? By Brett Fox I currently have ten books on my list for CEOs to read. They include the books you would expect including Clayton Christensen’s masterpiece, The Innovator’s Dilemma. The Innovator’s Dilemma is a great book. It’s like the bible for startups. However, if…
How Do You Negotiate With Investors?
How Do You Negotiate With Potential Investors? By Brett Fox I was so excited when we got the term sheet from the investor. Then I looked at the numbers. The deal sucked. The investor was taking more than the normal percentage at this stage. But I was confident I could negotiate a better deal. The…
Should You Ask For Backpay When You Close Your Funding?
Should You Ask For Backpay When You Close Your Funding? By Brett Fox Welcome to the world of sweat equity. I’ve been in your shoes. I went over two years without collecting a salary while we started the company and raised our initial funding. I didn’t ask for backpay, nor do I think our investors…
How Do You Handle Big Differences Between You And Your Cofounder?
How Do You Handle Big Differences Between You And Your Cofounder? By Brett Fox “I know more about building a company than you do,” one my co-founders said to me over the phone. Those were the last words “John” ever said to me as he quit the company. John was a brilliant technologist. His fellow…
How Do You Get Talent From Facebook Or Google To Join Your Company?
We got most of our top talent from two companies (Maxim and Linear Technology) in our industry that were the equivalent of Apple, Google, and Facebook. We knew we weren’t going to pay higher salaries than Maxim and Linear. Indeed, most of the people that joined us from Maxim and Linear took pay cuts. We…