What Do You Do When A Founder Isn’t Working Out? Video By Brett Fox Did you know that over 50% of founder relationships end badly? It’s true. That’s why you need to have a strategy just in case your cofounder relationship(s) don’t work out. I’ll walk you through the steps you need to take if…
And the damage from Shark Tank goes on… A few years ago a CEO of a pre-revenue startup reached out to me for guidance. The company was preparing to raise money. The CEO said to me during the initial consultation, “We’ve had a 409A valuation done on the company, and the valuation indicates the company…
What Your Life As A Startup CEO Is All About Video by Brett Fox I recently read a post on Quora that angered me more than any post I’ve read (and that’s saying something). The author’s message was exactly the reverse what you need to do to succeed as a startup CEO. What made me…
I was an EIR (Entrepreneur in Residence) at a VC firm in San Francisco when I started my company. I told the partners at the firm that the success or failure of my efforts would hinge on my finding a great VP Engineering. I had tons of contacts, and I had been in the industry…
Why You Need To Promote From Within Video By Brett Fox Hiring experienced people to help run your company is a very sound way to build your startup team. However, hiring experienced people from the outside instead of hiring from within can instantly stop your momentum. I’ll give you my take on why promoting from…
We were the poster child for a company that was crying out to be sued. My goodness, our first products were exact replicas (called “second sources” in the industry) of Maxim’s. To make matters worse, Maxim was litigious. Very, very litigious. You can develop an alternative way to do things. I was having lunch with…
What Is The Most Likely Regret You’ll Have If You Sell Your Company? By Brett Fox Selling your company is like a dream come true. Finally, after all your years of hard work, you get to reap the rewards. However, you need to think things though before you pull the trigger on selling your company.…
How Do You Raise Money When You’re Out Of Money? By Brett Fox You know the saying about how water seems to go down the drain quicker when there’s almost none left? Well that’s how it feels with time when you’re almost out of money. Everything feels like it’s accelerating. So what do you if…
I was presenting an update of our progress to one of our investors. The partners seemed happy with the progress we were making. One of the partners said to me, “Why don’t you build a team in India? It will be cheaper than continuing to hire here in the Valley.” I smiled, and I politely…
I blew it. The voice in the back of my head was arguing with itself. On the one hand it was saying, “Don’t hire ‘Tom’. There’s something wrong with him.” On the other hand, the voice was saying, “Brett, you need help in this area. You should hire Tom. He’s got a wealth of experience.…