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How Do You Develop Leadership Skills?
A couple lifetimes ago, I was working for a company where the CEO, “Bob”, liked to have a weekly operations meeting. A weekly operations meeting with the CEO and operations leader is pretty normal in a technology company. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. This CEO’s operations meeting…
Read MoreHow Do You Deal With A Broken Co-Founder?
“Tell me about your background,” I said to “Jim.” “John,” my co-founder who recommended Jim to me as our VP Engineering, and I were having lunch with Jim at Bucks. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Bucks, for those of you not living in the Silicon Valley, is…
Read MoreHow Do You Build Credibility When You’re Raising Money?
“What you did was incredible,” the associate at the venture capital firm, “Donald Ventures,” said to me. “I’ve never seen anyone handle ‘Raul’ like that.” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. We were walking out of a diligence meeting at DV’s office on Sand Hill Road. This meeting…
Read MoreHow Do You Build A Differentiated Product?
Have you ever heard the story of Toughskins Jeans, made by Sears? If you go back in time to the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, the jeans market was dominated by Levi’s 501 jeans. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] Sears wasn’t doing too well in the jeans market…
Read MoreHow Do You Build A $1B Startup?
“With this next round of funding, we’re going to valued at $1.5 billion,” “Ray,” a CEO I’m working with, said to me the other day. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “That’s awesome!” I said. “Congratulations. I remember how hard it was at the beginning. You’ve come a…
Read MoreHow Do You Become A Business Success?
“I want to be successful so badly I can taste it. What do I do?!” I said to the wall in my office. It was my first day after we launched our startup and I needed answers. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Yes, my son,” a booming…
Read MoreHow Can You Ruin Your Chances With Investors?
“I know that guy,” I whispered to Dave, the partner that was looking at the deal. It was the first meeting our venture fund was going to have with, what we thought, was a very promising company. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] “Who is he?” Dave whispered…
Read MoreHow Can You Meet And Beat Your Project Commitments
“You’re the only one of my portfolio companies with a tranche,” Gill said to me after closed our $12 million Series A funding. Then he added, “These are tough people (the other VC fund, “Donald Ventures”) we’re dealing with, and we’re going to be looking at each other if you don’t meet your commitments. Do…
Read MoreHow Can You Keep Your Great Engineers From Quitting?
“Brett, I wanted to let you know I am going to retire,” Dave said to me. “What? Why!” I said getting my bearings. “You can’t retire! You’re too young to retire.” “I don’t want to retire,” Dave said. “But I’m being pushed out by ‘Ted’.” [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can…
Read MoreHow Can You Make Team Building Work?
I looked at the inbox of my email one morning, and there was an email with the title, “Team Building,” from Mark, the Chief Operating Officer of the company I was working at. I opened the email, looked at the content, and I groaned my disapproval. Mark wanted a limited group of senior managers to…
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