What Every Founder Should Know

Many books offer advice to budding business leaders, but it would be safe to say that none are presented quite like the latest title from longtime Silicon Valley executive Maynard Webb. Inspired by a fictional story about a father who left a box of letters to his son, Webb has written a collection of letters titled Dear Founder: Letters of Advice for Anyone Who Leads, Manages, or Wants to Start a Business. Webb has served in senior leadership at eBay and Gateway and spent five years as CEO of call center solutions firm LiveOps. He is currently a member of the board of directors at Visa and Salesforce, and is a former board chairman at Yahoo. In the book, he draws on his own experiences as an investor, entrepreneur and board member to dispense advice for founders on facing common challenges — from missing goals in the first quarter to firing an employee to knowing when to grow the business. Webb recently joined the Knowledge@Wharton radio show on SiriusXM to discuss his new book.

An edited transcript of the conversation follows.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/what-every-founder-should-know/