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…
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…
How Do You Deal With Employee Burnout? By Brett Fox I love running. Specifically, I love distance running. It’s so peaceful when you go on a long run in the early morning. And that’s really true now that the weather’s gotten colder. It’s just you and your thoughts. Or maybe it’s just you, your thoughts,…
“We used to be even better than this,” the Vice President of one of the world’s largest distributors said to me as we were taking a tour of the distributor’s facility. The Vice President was responding to how impressed I was with the consistency of the answers and actions I was hearing and seeing from…
How Do You Raise Funding After Creating Your MVP? By Brett Fox Great. You’ve developed a kick-ass MVP that your customers are buying. So what. That’s the question (or questions) you’re going to need to answer in order to raise money. Just because customers are buying your product doesn’t mean you are going to get…
When Should You Hire Interns To Develop Your MVP? By Brett Fox As the great business philosopher John McEnroe said, “You cannot be serious!” You want to hire interns instead of experts? Come on! You cannot be serious! Okay. Let’s go through with the pros and cons of hiring interns instead of experts. The…
What Is The Right Amount Of Equity For A Late Joining Cofounder? By Brett Fox I had four co-founders, the last of whom joined 1.5 years after we started the company. Do you know who got the most equity amongst the co-founders? That’s right, the one that joined 1.5 years after we started. You want…
How Do You Plan Your Startup Scaling Into Multiple Markets? By Brett Fox “Do you have a VP Sales lined up?” The investor asked me during a diligence meeting. “I do,” I answered (I’ll get back to this later). Not only should you start planning your go to market strategies for the various countries you…
How Can You Use Being First To Market As A True Advantage? By Brett Fox I’ve been fortunate enough during my career to be involved with hundreds of product launches during my career. I’ve been first to market, second to market, and very late to a market, so I’ve seen the power of being first…
How Do You Know When To Release Your Killer Product? By Brett Fox I was walking out of the Decathlon Club one Saturday morning. I had just finished my workout. A beautiful woman drove into the Decathlon Club parking lot, and I thought to myself, “Park your car next to mine.” And she did. Just…