Hiring and Firing
What Traits Do Your Worst Employees Share?
“You need to meet your revenue numbers,” I said to our VP Sales, “Tommy”. Tommy had been on the job for about one month and already things were going sideways. “Well, okay,” Tommy responded. That’s not exactly the awe-inspiring response you want from your sales lead. Tommy didn’t seem to care. It was as if…
Read MoreWhy You Need To Promote From Within
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 within should be your goto strategy in this short video. …
Read MoreWhy Can’t You Hire Engineers For Your Startup?
“We’re doing well if we hire 10% of the people that we have face to face interviews with,” I said to my cofounder and VP Engineering, Jeroen. We had hired our initial team of ten engineers through our network. So the numbers were much better for us. Now our hiring was starting to slow down,…
Read MoreWhat You Should Worry About When You Ask Your Investor For Help Recruiting Your Team
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 in this short video. Do You Want To Grow Your Business? Maybe I Can Help.…
Read MoreWhat Are Early Warning Signs That You Need To Fire An Executive?
I was really excited when “Tom” joined us as VP of Sales. Tom had come highly recommended from two of our board members that had previously worked with Tom. The rest of the board met with Tom and they were all enthusiastically thumbs up. I couldn’t wait for Tom to join us. Tom came into…
Read MoreHow Much Equity Should You Give A Cofounder You Are Paying?
There was a fellow we worked with early on as a consultant. We had worked together in the past, and I knew anything we got from Martin would be upside. He was consulting at the beginning. So I paid him as a consultant. Straight cash with no equity. [Do you want to grow your business? Maybe…
Read MoreWhen Do You Decide To Fire An Underperforming Employee?
I have a perfect record when it comes to saving underperforming employees. That’s right, I am 100% successful in not turning an employees performance around. Except for this one time… The company I was working for had just acquired another company, and I was given the responsibility of running this new division. I was fortunate…
Read MoreHow Can You Make Sure You’re Hiring A Players, Not C Players?
You know, there’s the old saying that “A players hire other A players, and B players hire C players.” And if only it was that easy because most people think they are A players. The reality is that you should be looking at various data points to determine who is an A player. Here are…
Read MoreWhat Should Your Sick Policy Be?
I had a pretty simple policy regarding being sick: If you’re healthy you should come to work. If you’re sick, you should stay home. And I followed my sick policy as CEO as best I could. There were days when, no matter how badly I felt, I had to be at work. Sometimes those days…
Read MoreHow Do You Get Talent From Facebook Or Google To Join Your Company?
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…
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