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Initial Conversation with a CTO or Technical Advisor

SoCal CTO

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are trying to determine what technologies might apply that you should be evaluating. Of course, when you go to have this conversation be prepared.

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Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Founder

SoCal CTO

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Structure development contracts appropriately or directing the in-house team appropriately. Third party products are used appropriately. Plan for past the initial MVP.

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Part-Time Startup CTO?

SoCal CTO

I love blog conversations. Based on my posts Startup CTO or Developer and Acting CTO , Chris O’Meara wrote an interesting post Startup CTO: Could It Work? They tend to know where to find good help in terms of employees and consultants. They tend to have the knack for architecture. It's about leading by example.

CTO Hire 150
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Document Your MVP for a Developer

SoCal CTO

I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs? Conversations with a technical advisors or possible developers should be iterative. Founder : Ummm. what do you mean? You likely are writing your first one of these.

Developer 354
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Why Lawyers Don’t Run Startups

Steve Blank

Our conversation led us to Scott Walkers post Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers and why we both recommend that entrepreneurs print it out and tape it to their wall. 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.

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Working with Developers

SoCal CTO

Adding pressure to this conversation makes it tougher. I.e., they need a developer more than they need a CTO. What happens when you have a really good developer is that a gap exists where you may not ask the right questions to specify the right system, consider appropriate 3rd party technologies, etc.

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What Startup Advisors Do I Need?

SoCal CTO

Solving the Founder-Tech Gap that came out of some fun conversations that Bob and I have been having. A large part of this conversation is what kinds of advisors startups should be looking for. The conversation with Bob was about what the composition of advisors should look like.