When I worked at Maxim Integrated Products, one of the most successful startups ever in the semiconductor industry, we used to have our planning meetings over at the Peppermill restaurant in Cupertino. I think the Peppermill is gone now, but it was a great venue for us to meet at. …

Years ago, I was in a meeting with Jack Gifford, the founding CEO of Maxim Integrated Products. Maxim’s revenue was around $1 billion per year at the time. Also in the meeting was “Peter”, one of the best engineering managers in the company. Peter was complaining to Gifford how hard…

I remember the moment clearly. We had finally gotten to $100,000 per month in revenue. This should have been a moment of celebration because $100,000 per month is when you’ve hit escape velocity. If you just keep at it, you’ll be at $1 million per month in no time flat. …

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever received was from a mentor I had named Lew. Lew was an old school sales guy, trained by the legendary Don Valentine at Fairchild Semiconductor back in the day. After working at Fairchild, Lew ran several large sales organizations. Then he…

I had four co-founders. I had to fire one of my co-founders within six months of us being operational. This was six months before we had any revenue. I’ll get back to the importance of revenue later in the story. The negotiation of “Randy’s” exit was simple. It took less…

“There’s a company in our portfolio, I can’t say who, where the founders decided to sell to Microsoft,” one of my investors, Gill, said to me. “Congratulations,” I said. “Well, they decided to sell a little earlier then I would have preferred, but they are the founders, so they get…

“There’s a company in our portfolio, I can’t say who, where the founders decided to sell to Microsoft,” one of my investors, Gill, said to me. “Congratulations,” I said. “Well, they decided to sell a little earlier then I would have preferred, but they are the founders, so they get…

“’Bob’ wants to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic,” I said to Steve, my right hand man. “What did Bob do?” Steve asked. “Well, you know we missed our number for the quarter,” I said, referring to the company missing its financial goals for the quarter. Steve nodded for…

“I want to cut the equity of my co-founder from 45 percent to twenty percent,” “Oren” said to me. “He’s not performing very well. What do you think?” “I don’t think that’s going to go over very well,” I said. “You certainly can try, but I don’t think it’s going…