Management
You've decided you need to replace one of your executives. Hopefully, the executive already knows things aren't going great and that you've already had several conversations about performance. Hopefully, you've also already had several conversations with the board and they either are
CEO
I talked to a founder a while back who felt like they'd lost a year or two thanks to some strategic distractions foisted upon them by a well-meaning board of directors. While most startup boards try to follow the Hippocratic Oath, some -- like well-meaning but overbearing
CEO
I've always felt that "what keeps you up at night?" was a trick question for CEOs. There's one part of it I'm quite sure about. There cannot be anything that you control that keeps you up at night. Why? Because you'
Boards
Have you ever been to a board meeting where 60 minutes were allocated on the agenda for discussion of a strategic topic? What happened in that session? * You probably started late because board meetings are hard to keep on time. * Some exec, maybe the CEO, probably presented a "few
Databases
Well it's time for my annual predictions post, a series now in its eighth year. Before diving in, let me remind readers that I do these predictions in the spirit of fun, they are not business or investment advice, and that all of my usual disclaimers and terms
Management
Is your leadership team world-class? Are some of your executives holding your company back? Could you grow faster if you replaced your head of sales? Does your board think you have the right leadership team? Heck, does your leadership team think you have the right leadership team? Do your
Growth
In my new capacity as an EIR at Balderton Capital, I recently gave a presentation to a leadership meeting at a high-growth, Balderton-backed startup offering my perspectives on growth and the challenges that come with it. I discussed these five challenges: 1. Next-levelitis, an obsessive focus on
Management
Say you're a $40M SaaS business growing at 40%. Is that good? Is that bad? How do you know? In this post, we'll take a quick look at three lenses you should look through in considering this question. * The plan lens * The benchmark lens * The market
CEO
About two weeks ago I spoke at SaaStr Annual 2021, giving a presentation entitled A CEO's Guide to Marketing, which discusses why marketing is sometimes seen as a dark art and then discusses 5 things that every CEO (and startup exec) should know about marketing in order to
SaaS
I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be joining Balderton Capital on a part-time basis to work with the firm and its portfolio companies on topics related to enterprise software, strategy, go-to-market, marketing, and SaaS metrics. You know, my usual stuff. In addition, I expect to
Boards
A corporate lawyer friend once told me to think about director protections as a triangle with three legs [1]: * D&O insurance, which stands for directors and officers insurance (and with which most people are familiar) * Indemnification agreements (with which some people are familiar) * Charter provisions (with which it
Management
A few days ago, Steve Pockross released a new episode of his Yes, And Marketing podcast on which he interviews a series of "eclectic and enlivening" marketers where "your weird shower thoughts and disparate liberal arts references take a road trip." I was last week'