“You’re being myopic, Brett.” That’s what Jack Gifford, the founding CEO of Maxim Integrated Products, used to like to say to me when we disagreed on something. I’m sure there was a modicum of truth in Jack’s words, especially early in our time working together. However, Gifford would always tell me that! And Gifford, for…
“If you can’t recruit, then you can’t be a manager.” Jack Gifford, the founding CEO of Maxim Integrated Products, said that to his management team over and over again as he built Maxim into one of the most successful companies in its space. The key, as I look back on my experience working at Maxim,…
Peter Thiel wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 2014 that “Competition Is For Losers.” In other words, you can build a product that’s much better than anything else in the market that you don’t need to compete. That sounds pretty cool, doesn’t it? The question is Peter Thiel right? I’ll give you my take…
Years ago, I was having coffee with my friend Alain, and somehow, we got on the subject of Elon Musk and Tesla. Alain, who was an original investor in Tesla, said, “Elon can simultaneously channel Bill Gates and Steve Jobs.” “That’s impressive,” I said. (You can watch Alain talk about Tesla and Elon here:) Think…
“What took you so long?” Every single time I’ve fired someone as CEO, someone on my team has asked me that question. Every. Single. Time. And, there’s a good reason I was asked that question. You see.. You, the CEO, almost always wait too long to fire someone. For example, I realized, about two months…
It’s surprisingly uncommon for your co-founder to want to be co-CEO with you. I had it happen to me, and I’ve had more than one CEO that I’ve worked with have a founder ask to be co-CEO. In this video, I’ll share my story and the story of “Bob”, a CEO I’m working with, of…
You just hired your new VP Sales six months ago, and now you’re beginning to wonder if you made a mistake. Your previous VP Sales only lasted three months, and now you’re worried that your board is going to lose confidence in you too. What should you do? In today’s video, we go through this…
Imagine this scenario. Your co-founder of five years, who owns the same 40% of the company you do, decides he is unhappy with his role, and he stops working, daring you to fire him. Firing him is the easy decision. The tougher decisions are should you buy him out and what should you do with…
When you think about the qualities that every successful startup must have, you’re likely to think about having a great team, a great CEO, grit, an exploding market, a great culture, and a friendly competitor. There’s a lot to choose from. But there’s one quality that you absolutely, positively have to have. Can you guess…
Your largest customer, representing over 80 percent of your revenue, threatens they are not going to work with you anymore. Making matters worse, your startup is in the middle of fundraising. What should you do? In today’s video, I’m going to go over this real life problem that a startup CEO I’m advising, “Gary”, is…