Remove Cost Remove CTO Hire Remove Software Development
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Startup CTO or Developer

SoCal CTO

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up. I used an image from Roger Smith that describes the varying roles of a CTO as the company matures.

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Startups and a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development

SoCal CTO

I've done four Free CTO Consulting Sessions in the past month with startup founders who all had run into variations of the same problem. They didn't feel they had visibility into timelines and costs for development of their software. My belief is that you shouldn't sign that contract.

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Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Founder

SoCal CTO

If you do not break it down into small pieces, its hard to make progress with part-time resources, freelancers, etc. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? The "Questions" post is probably the most important.

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Poor Software Developers - Pull the Plug Early

SoCal CTO

There's an old adage in software development that I refer to all the time: The first 90% of development takes 90% of the time. The remaining 10%, takes the other 90% of the time. I used this when I taught software engineering. Recovery from this situation is hard. I wish I had a better answer.

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10 Attributes Of The Perfect Partner For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk. The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Look at the big picture first of development, finance, and marketing/sales.

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Startup CTO Speaking

SoCal CTO

So, here goes: Dr. Tony Karrer Over the past 15 years, Tony has been a part-time CTO for more than 30 startups. Most notably, he was the original CTO for eHarmony for its first four years making him partly responsible for more than 4% of the marriages every year. What does it cost to acquire a new customer?

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Working with Developers

SoCal CTO

Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Here are some of the issues that were mentioned: I just want the cost, timeline and impact. But my developers want to go into way too much detail. Don’t do this to a developer or they will hate you.