SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services.

Fractional CTO 264

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services.

Fractional CTO 259

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 259

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

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?

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte.

Technical Review 418

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2014

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.”

Partner 269

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 269

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

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. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions. Marty Zwilling.

Cofounder 221

Cofounder Software Review CTO Hire Founder 221

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

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.”

Partner 258

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

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. After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Steve Blank

MAY 27, 2010

But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. After being in business for all of seven months, one of our first deals at Epiphany was with a software company called Visio , (now owned by Microsoft.) Then Visio gave us their boilerplate contract. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers.

Fractional CTO 303

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Software Review Startup 303

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

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.”

Partner 240

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 240

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

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.” Marty Zwilling.

Partner 230

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 230

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? Often times, it seems like people are thinking its synonymous with "that guy who gets paid to sit in the corner and think technical deep thoughts" or "that guy who gets to swoop in a rearrange my project at the last minute on a whim."

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board. Hire a CEO to Go Public.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Gust

APRIL 13, 2014

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.” Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. Complementary skills. Passion for what they do.

Partner 179

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 179

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

I told her that I believed America’s best asset – driven initially from software innovation mindset in the San Francisco Bay Area and media innovation driven from Los Angeles – was our willingness to accept failure. We hired outside experts. We checked charge times. Time will tell. Time will tell.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review South Korea San Francisco Software Review 417

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

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. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions.

Partner 140

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

At TechEmpower, we frequently talk to startup founders, CEOs, product leaders, and other innovators about their next big tech initiative. It’s part of our job to ask questions about their plans, challenge their assumptions, and suggest paths to success. Do you have legal (Founder Agreement, IP, etc.) Fulfillment?

Developer 520

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

I am convinced one of Joel Spolskys lasting contributions to the field of managing software teams will turn out to be the Joel Test , a checklist of 12 essential practices that you could use to rate the effectiveness of a software product development team. For more on continuous deployment, see Just-in-time Scalability.

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

So many tech startups begin the same way: One founder, one dream and a plan to make it happen. To learn more about how your startup can find, hire and keep the top talent and quality workers it needs to succeed, download this free ReadWriteWeb Report: The Talent Wars: Today’s Toughest Startup Challenge. Don’t be fooled by titles.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

mashable.com

MAY 9, 2011

Hiring the wrong person for key company positions can cost a business thousands — or tens of thousands — of dollars and man hours. This is especially true when it comes to tech companies hiring the wrong chief technology officer. Leadership Abilities Are A Must It’s natural to want a tech savvy and competent CTO.

CTO Hire 73

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

As a CTO, I can definitely say without a doubt that few people understand what a CTO does. When I tell someone I’m a CTO, I’m often met with a blank stare. Even when someone is aware of what a CTO does, they often have limited context due to the wide variety of CTO roles.

Fractional CTO 54

Fractional CTO CTO Hire CTO Technical Review 54

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I gave him the same advice I give nearly all over-worked, control-freak, do-everything-yourself startup founders: “Your number one priority isn’t any of these things. Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

When I want to know about some concurrency issues between services in his cluster, he doesnt blink an eye when I suggest we get the source code and take a look. Hes just as comfortable writing code as racking servers, debugging windows drivers, or devising new interview questions. He throws off volumes of code, and it works.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Part-Time VPE 94

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Wednesday, September 10, 2008 Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now Smarticus — 10 things you could be doing to your code right now A great checklist of techniques and tools for making your development more agile, written from a Rail perspective.

Software Review 68

Software Review San Francisco Technical Review Continuous Deployment 68

SoCal CTO

APRIL 9, 2013

I just got an email asking about exactly this: I''m with a new company that needs some software built, but doesn''t need (or have the resources for) a large staff of software developers. Do not fall into the trap of Startups and a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development. What are the review periods?

Web Development 204

Web Development Web Developer Los Angeles 204

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 27, 2010

I mean, you don’t have to build an actual business—you can just mimic the movements and demonstrate something that looks like a startup on paper, without any of the necessary risk taking, lessons learned or even a fraction of the effort—all the stuff that investors like to see. What ever happened to “build it”?

New York 121

New York CTO Hire Technical Review New York City 121

firstround.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

The Review. The Review. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. Ian Langworth started his career as an O’Reilly author and software engineer at Google. Your primary responsibility is shipping high-quality code. Plusstartup.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire Engineer Software Review Part-Time VPE 52

Startup Lessons Learned

MAY 7, 2009

Getting features and fixes into hands of users was the greatest priority - a test environment would just get in the way and slow down the validation coming from having code running in production. For people we hired from larger companies especially, this was challenging. I wont pretend that this worked smoothly every time.

San Francisco 131

San Francisco Continuous Deployment Software Review Lean 131

konamoxt.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

January 18, 2009 Why Your Startup Can’t Afford To Hire a CTO Before Founding Konamoxt, my last gig was the Chief Technology Officer for a local Seattle Startup. Mr. Startup CEO, I’m here to tell you, you can’t afford to hire a CTO. Can you help us make sure this candidate would make a good CTO?&#

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire CTO Hiring Technical Review 40

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

Since the term “cloud computing” was coined in 1996—at least as we have come to understand its meaning—the software as a service industry has exploded. If you want a slice of the pie, there isn’t a better time to get involved. I started UpKeep after seeing and using traditional enterprise software. The business model.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Chen Zamir is the company’s CTO and former Intelligence officer in the IDF as well as Paypal risk manager. Orcam was created by the founders of Mobileye (NYSE: MBLY and one of Israel’s largest IPOs ), Prof. Co-founders Ami Daniel and Matan Peled both served as naval officers.

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Israel Technical Review Startup 122

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders. Marketing Intern. Office Space.

Equity 62

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Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 15, 2008

It was actually my co-founder Will Harvey who taught me to present this data in the simple format weve discussed in this post. Code To make split-testing pervasive, it has to be incredibly easy. The only change you have to get used to as you start to code in this style, is to wrap your changes in a simple one-line condition.

San Francisco 166

San Francisco Lean Technical Review Continuous Deployment 166

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early. And by early, we mean pre-traction. Lead investors are few.

North America 120

North America Seed Stage Early Stage Lead Investor 120

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

With any of your initial founders, to build a strong startup, building strong relationships is foremost. Operate on due diligence from this point: Identify your potential key crew members — background checks, personal references, past business review are all vital. It’s an arduous process and takes some skill.

Software Review 54

Software Review Technical Review CTO Hire San Antonio 54

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

Founder Dialogues : Eric Paley plays talk show host on this recurring fireside chat style event with Boston area founders. The next one is TechProm , organized by Dave Balter, the founder of BzzAgent. OnStartups: One of the largest online startup communities founded by HubSpot founder Dharmesh Shah. University Resources.

Boston 56

Boston Technical Review Community CTO Hire 56