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…
“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…
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…
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,…
“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…
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…
Have no idea how to raise money from investors? That’s what I’m going to explain to you in today’s video. Learn how to raise money from investors, explained in three easy steps. If you’re a startup CEO, and you want to learn how to raise startup funding, then you’ll want to watch this video. I’ll…
“They even got me an apartment to stay in when I went to Shanghai,” “Tommy”, my new VP Sales said to me. It was offhand comment Tommy made about his time consulting with another startup that was based in China. But, the comment didn’t ring true to me. “What startup gets an apartment for a…
“You’re at $5 million in revenue. Since we’re in the last quarter of the year, this is the perfect time to do some long term planning,” I said to “Kevin”, a CEO I’m working with. “What did you have in mind?” Kevin asked. “I love to go through the exercise every year of what does…
“He needs to understand that asking for more equity is like pulling on a string,” I said to Adolfo, my co-founder and VP Marketing. We were reviewing what offer package we should give a potential employee, and Adolfo was indicating the applicant wanted more equity. “What do you mean, Brett?” Adolfo asked me. “Let me…