This site uses cookies to improve your experience. To help us insure we adhere to various privacy regulations, please select your country/region of residence. If you do not select a country, we will assume you are from the United States. Select your Cookie Settings or view our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Used for the proper function of the website
Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
Cookie Settings
Cookies and similar technologies are used on this website for proper function of the website, for tracking performance analytics and for marketing purposes. We and some of our third-party providers may use cookie data for various purposes. Please review the cookie settings below and choose your preference.
Strictly Necessary: Used for the proper function of the website
Performance/Analytics: Used for monitoring website traffic and interactions
How does a newly hired ChiefTechnologyOfficer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six months as a new CTO thinking you’re making progress when the status quo is working to keep you at bay? Get out of the office. Good News and Bad.
I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. "I'm looking for a partner / cofounder who can not only head the technical aspects and build a working model of the site, but someone with the connections to put a great development team together when we need it.
Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology or money. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated.
I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? Was it a case of needing Homework?
This is not only sad but incredibly frustrating, because it is so easy to see how a great technology can be developed and commercialized if only - if only the CTO hadn't been impulsive and insecure and brought on a business partner too early in the game. … And it’s not just inexperienced CTOs. Lack of confidence? Camaraderie?
I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.
As a cofounder you are *always* selling. Even if you’re the most technical CTO out there, you have to get comfortable with this reality. Having a cofounder who loves selling doesn’t (fully) solve for this. If you avoid sales or are poor at it, you are doing a disservice to your team, your cofounder and yourself.
In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO.
I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering?
In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO.
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? What does your ChiefTechnologyOfficer do all day? So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering.
Two more entrepreneurial ventures later, Gleb cofounded online backup provider Backblaze to help consumers affordably, automatically, and safely back up their data. What are the pros and cons of starting a business alone versus with cofounders? How many founders are too many? One” – You have to have a cofounder.
As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO.
I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.
Jane and Dick, our fearless cofounders of SayAhh, have set up an accounting system and created their first set of financial statements. This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. Time to update the cap table.
So today I’m excited to announce that Upfront Ventures is leading an $8 million round with some amazing co-investors including Founder’s Fund, OATV, Lowercase, High Peaks, Collaborative Fund and many great angel investors. And for the next several months the founders literally ran the business.
A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”
Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. And that should be the focus of the founders -- to find the special fit that will make your company take off. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. Far from it.
A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”
I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Developers (and Founders) are challenged to know how much is okay in terms of bugs.
I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.
500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication? 500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication? First Principles.
Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. ” But it’s that exact trust that allowed them to agree for me to join, the gradually introduce change (that they encouraged & supported) and to eventually co-lead the partnership after just a few short years on the inside.
Every business person with a dollar and a dream these days thinks they’re a technical co-founder away from interweb stardom. A CTO will also want to ensure that the businesspeople on their team will understand important product and technical decisions. to put together a product plan. It just works.
What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles. They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build. What's going to go wrong?
For example: Mitch Kapor was a founder of Lotus. As the emeritus ChiefTechnologyOfficer of the United States, he still connects government and Silicon Valley. He’s a founder of Andreessen Horowitz, which has backed Facebook, Skype, Jawbone, and dozens of other companies whose products you use.
Some great posts from April 2010 that talk to me in terms of being a CTO at a Startup. Redeye VC , April 13, 2010 Startup Development - SoCal CTO , April 23, 2010 Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Ben Casnocha: The Blog , April 15, 2010 Everyone I spoke with loved the idea.
A week ago I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ How to Select an Ideal Startup Co-Founder ”. In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”
A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”
When speaking with founders and CEOs, we often hear concerns like this: My project manager is losing confidence in the development team. The Founder-Developer Gap and A, B, C Players The challenges that business leaders face when assessing development teams are a good example of the Founder-Developer Gap. It’s a good question.
But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. After some heroics from our CTO in extracting data from SAP, the Visio CFO loved our product, thought we could save them a ton of time and money and wanted it installed ASAP. Startups need to have a great lawyer, accountant, patent attorney, etc.
Isaac Cambron is co-founder and CTO of Zensight.co , whose pre-launch product enables sales reps to find and use their best content to close more deals. Below, he answers questions about developing products from scratch, as well as the difficult technology choices and tradeoffs CTOs must make.
In the video below, LivingSocial co-founder and CTO Aaron Batalion talks about the company's previous manifestations - consultants, Facebook app developers, and so on - and the principles that helped motivate the company to change direction like this.
. + 1,000 startup founders, investors, and press! Vinod Khosla Founder Dave McClure Founding Partner Eric Ries Author Steve Blank Serial Entrepreneur & Professor Todd Park CTO Travis Kalanick CEO & Co-Founder Joe Zadeh Director of Product Sam Shank Co-Founder & CEO NEW!
This start-up is headed by industry-leading professionals including its CEO and co-founder, Ido Susan, and Hillel Kobrinsky the CSO and co-founder. Intezer.com is headed by Itai Tevet, the CEO, Roy Halevi the CTO, and Alon Cohen Executive Chairman and Founding Investor. Namogoo.com. oz-code.com.
With all other things equal, that means that a 50/50 split between two co-founders (evenly split if there are more than two), or a 66/33 split based on the premium for coming up with the original idea, and for starting the initial development efforts and sourcing the original team. Whose idea was it?
In this episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast , I interview Nils De Moor, Co-founder and CTO at Woorank. After a brief passage through the academic world where he researched simulation of distributed systems, he decided to try his luck as an entrepreneur and cofounded Woorank as the CTO.
He brings a strong technology base to the table, as a former CTO, and creator of the Lean Startup methodology. He is the co-author of several books including “The Black Art of Java Game Programming.” Dharmesh is the founder and CTO of HubSpot, as well as a blogger and speaker on the topic of startups and Internet marketing.
The founder and CEO of Swiftsharing is 15 year-old high school freshman Alaxic Smith, who personally wrote all the front-end code for Swiftsharing. Swiftsharing ‘s co-founder and chieftechnologyofficer is 16 year-old Paul Henry, who also happens to be Smith’s close friend and neighbor. .&#
Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. Now I have. It sounds like Angel Boot Camp rocked.
Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board.
Soon after he was promoted to Senior Architect, our highest role without being CTO. When we started our next company, Koral, Ryan was a co-founder. We decided to give Ryan more than he had even asked for as a show of goodwill. It really only amounted to a few extra thousand a year but was hugely symbolic.
(Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) He previously co-founded and served as ChiefTechnologyOfficer of IMVU. He is the co-author of several books including The Black Art of Java Game Programming (Waite Group Press, 1996).
A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” Photo of Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt with Sergey Brin and Larry Page via Wikipedia.
We organize all of the trending information in your field so you don't have to. Join 5,000+ users and stay up to date on the latest articles your peers are reading.
You know about us, now we want to get to know you!
Let's personalize your content
Let's get even more personalized
We recognize your account from another site in our network, please click 'Send Email' below to continue with verifying your account and setting a password.
Let's personalize your content