I was at a lunch meeting with the head of the venture capital fund that was sponsoring me as Entrepreneur in Residence (EIR). I said to Mike, “I know if we get funded, we will succeed.” Mike looked at me and said, “I can think of 100 things that will kill your company.” Mike’s tone…
What’s The One Preventable Mistake You’re Likely To Make Starting Out? By Brett Fox There’s a mistake that you are likely to make when you are building your business. I can just about guarantee it. I made this exact mistake when I was starting my company, and it hurt us. I’ll explain what this mistake…
I was telling Blossom yesterday that when I was starting my career I thought anyone that was a Vice President of company must be really smart. And you must be unbelievably smart if you were the CEO. I held CEOs up on a pedestal because of all the knowledge they must have to become a…
You’ll hear this phrase over and over again if you start spending time with Venture Capitalists. What’s the phrase? “Startups are very fragile.” I used to discount that idea when I was younger, cockier, and stupider. I knew what I was doing, or so I thought. Now I realize just how sage those…
What Are The Five Numbers You Instantly Need To Know? By Brett Fox There are five metrics that you should instantly know if you are on top of your business. If you don’t know where your business is with respect to these five metrics, you’re in deep trouble. What are these five metrics and…
Did you know that it took me three founding teams before I was able to get the right team to start my company? It’s true. Team number one failed because my two cofounders quit and stole the intellectual property of the company and left me for dead the day before we were going to get…
One of the craziest things I’ve ever heard from an investor (and I’ve heard plenty of crazy things) was, “I hate high margin businesses.” The managing partner of the fund, we’ll call them “Donald Ventures” said this to me at the beginning of our final meeting. I was taken aback. I thought to myself, “That…
How Do You Overcome Your Biggest Problem? By Brett Fox How Do You Overcome Your Biggest Problem? At some point in your entrepreneurial journey, you’re going to face a problem so difficult that it will look impossible to overcome. I don’t know when you face this big problem, but you will. How do…
What You Should Worry About When You Ask Your Investors For Help Recruiting By Brett Fox Your investors will likely be more than happy to help your build your team. But asking your investors for help does not come without risks. I’ll walk you through how to navigate a trickier situation than you might think…
“What happens if we don’t get a term sheet in the next six weeks?” One of my employees asked me during our company meeting. I had just let the team know that everyone in the company was going to minimum wage for the next six weeks. During our board meeting the previous day, one of…