Hiring and Firing
What’s The Right Way To Determine Your Team’s Salary?
I’ll never forget one of my investors, “Raul”, asking me how much I was going to pay myself after we closed our $12 million round of funding. I told Raul I was going to pay myself $200,000, well below the market rate of $250,000 at the time. This was significantly more than the zero salary…
Read MoreWhat’s The Wrong Way To Think About Equity?
Years ago, I was introduced to the two co-founders of a fledgling semiconductor company. I have an affinity for companies in the space, so I agreed to talk with them. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The two co-founders told me they had no funding, and they were…
Read MoreHow Should You Manage Your Stock Option Plan?
“I was expecting an offer of three percent,” Joe said to me. I’d been recruiting Joe since before we got our funding, and, now, two years after we closed our funding, we had offered Joe 0.75% stock options to become a Senior Scientist. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click…
Read MoreWho You Should Never Add As A Co-Founder?
“I just bought a unit in new The Millennium building, up in the City,” my co-founder, “Ken”, said to me. “You should check it out!” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. “Really,” I said. “I thought you were going to buy a house on the peninsula, closer to…
Read MoreHow You Can Make A Great First Impression In Less Than Seven Seconds
“Here’s a slide I think might be good,” the CEO said to us. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The CEO had just blown it. I mean completely blown it. I was working at a Venture Capital firm at the time, and we were sincerely interested in investing…
Read MoreHow Do You Evaluate A Potential Technical Co-Founder?
I considered a lot VP Engineering/CTO candidates before Jeroen agreed to join me as co-founder. The candidates were the good, the bad, and the ugly. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] There were a lot of near misses where the fit just wasn’t there or something wasn’t quite…
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 MoreAre You Better Off With An Older Team or A Younger Team?
“So, you’re thinking of going the young route,” Bruce Wooley, who was the dean of the electrical engineering department at Stanford, said to me. One of Bruce’s past students had introduced us, and we were having coffee. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here.] I told Bruce I was…
Read MoreWhat Are The Six Rules For Building Loyal Teams
“It was my fault. I screwed up,” I told Maxim Integrated Products CEO, Jack Gifford. “You should be screaming at me, not him!” Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. I didn’t want Steve (my boss) to take the beating for my screw-up. I wanted Gifford to tear into…
Read MoreWhat Are The Warning Signs Of A Bad Co-Founder?
Do you think it’s a good idea to propose marriage after your second date? Good, I didn’t think so. Do you want to grow your business? Maybe I can help. Click here. The best analogy for deciding on cofounders is dating. In fact, a cofounder relationship is more intense than a marriage: You’re working in…
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