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What does it mean to be a CTO for a startup? Should a startup CTO spend their timeprogramming? Exploring new technologies? The role of a CTO varies as the company matures. That’s why the CTO’s attention is on programming for the earliest stage. A CTO can help you find the right answers.
Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. The terms “CTO&# and “VP Engineering&# have such stigmas associated with what they are that I’m sure some people will feel uncomfortable with the definitions I’ve put forward.
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.
It was like having a bunch of mini- Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions all in one room. Structure development contracts appropriately or directing the in-house team appropriately. Structure development contracts appropriately or directing the in-house team appropriately. Would you create contracts without an attorney?
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 have the programming background to lead competent people by example and dig in and prove it where necessary. They were hired to build stuff. I love blog conversations.
Would you create contracts without an attorney? The Strategic Technical Advisor looks at the business and determines what makes sense from a technology perspective in the short-term and longer-terms. CTO Founder – Do they really still need a technical advisor? Strategy can be had on a part-time basis.
I seem to encounter a lot of people who want to attach a CTO label to me as I'm the only programmer on the founding team of three. While I do fill that role at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to refer to myself as a CTO as we still haven't launched a product, acquired a single user, or turned or a penny in profit. Who will do that?
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? Third party products are used appropriately.
I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?
I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? What does your Chief Technology Officer do all day? Thats an important job, for sure, and Ive been called upon to do it from time to time. So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?"
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. Many are not interested in 3rd party technologies that can streamline development.
Are specific technologies or platforms involved in your project? Some offer specialized skill sets like expertise in a particular programming language or framework, or specific domain knowledge. Who was involved in those projects, and are they still part of the firm? Were they finished on time and on budget?
There are a bunch of questions in Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything and in Startup CTO or Developer. Now there are some hard challenges around what technologies to use to balance short-term and long-term. This is somewhat the heart of what a CTO does. Do not hire a CTO at this point.
Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Coworking Spaces - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , September 2, 2010 I've never been much of a fan of incubators. They have a chef come in and cook a healthy lunch for everyone three times a week.
We took the feedback we gathered in previous years to expand on and improve the program. We’ve recently added talks from: Former US CTO and current tech advisor to the White House, Todd Park; former Facebook engineering director Joceyln Goldfein; Dropbox engineering VP Aditya Agarwal; and KISSMetrics founder Hiten Shah.
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. Nothing can be more damaging than a misleading or careless CTO.
by Adam Root, founder and CTO of Hiplogiq. Most of us would want to hire the most experienced, cutthroat lawyer specializing in multimillion-dollar mergers. To start, I used Google AdWords to target potential users and direct traffic to a landing page that communicated the value of the program. A DUI lawyer? Didn’t think so.
Want to Know Difference Between a CTO and a VP of Engineering? Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. Still, I believe I’m offering an accurate representation of the ideal configuration of the main technology leaders. Raising Venture Capital.
When International Technological University’s CTO Kranthi Lammatha was a boy in the Indian farming village of Kasipuram, he would walk nine miles to get to school every day and another nine miles to get back home in the evening. Looking to Solve Problems. The days of waiting weeks for transcripts are over. Kranthi Lammatha.
August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Every time I see my graduate students try to teach for the first time, it’s usually so painful I bite my lip. The Dry Run.
The other day, I took part in a forum about technology education in Brooklyn. There was a CTO in the room who had a fifty plus person tech team and so I asked him, "How many of your developers learned their trade in the classroom versus being essentially self taught?". Venture Capital & Technology'
Another way to learn more about who’s speaking is to sort the conference program by category and find people addressing specific topics. As the emeritus Chief Technology Officer of the United States, he still connects government and Silicon Valley. For example: Mitch Kapor was a founder of Lotus.
In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. Incentive programs need to tie together the new acquisition’s continued success and the rest of the company.
The event, devoted exclusively to the intersection of consumer technologies and the enterprise, will explore the ways companies are embracing consumer-inspired technology to engage employees, drive innovation, and attract and empower the next generation workforce. Events & Happenings CITE event innovation IT technology'
Amsterdam-based Rockstart Accelerator , one of the many, many startup accelerators in Europe, is taking the first class of startups who’ve graduated from its six-month program stateside this month. Owlin : a real-time news analysis and intelligence tool for traders.
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. No revenues, no costs. break the silos!
The new FinTech Innovation Lab , an annual program run by the New York City Investment Fund and Accenture, had their launch event on Thursday night. This is definitely not the norm in accelerator programs; I’d be curious to know the logic. Previously CTO, Goldman Sachs. Formerly MS IT department. 15 yrs at MS.
In this model, you take some fraction of the lifetime value of each customer and plow that back into paid acquisition through SEM, banner ads, PR, affiliates, etc. Beware the new hire who has "extensive experience" in startups or big companies - using a different growth driver. Learning is better than optimization (the local ma.
(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 Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He is the co-author of several books including The Black Art of Java Game Programming (Waite Group Press, 1996).
Lessons from a year’s worth of hiring data. Because I used to be an engineer, one part of my job was conducting first-round technical interviews, and between January 2012 and January 2013, I interviewed roughly 300 people for our back-end/full-stack engineer position. Aline Lerner's Blog. Jun 21, 2013.
With industries from banking to transportation being transformed and, in some instances, undermined by new business models and technology, executives are smart to wonder, “Are we next?” LESSON #3: Avoid these three hiring mistakes. When it comes time to grow your team, Jeff Jordan and Eric pointed out three hiring mistakes to avoid.
Chris OMeara Main | Probing Code Quality » 01/31/2010 Startup CTO: Could It Work? A CEO friend of mine recently asked my opinion about Tony Karrers Startup CTO or Developer article. I think the parttimeCTO could work. A few had the title CTO but they all fit the technical rock star and hacker profile.
Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. And we cant hire new engineers any faster, because you cant be interviewing and debugging and fixing all at the same time! Even with the highest standards imaginable, theres no way to hire just genius hackers. Just change it.
Kenneth Wenger – Unveiling the Future of AI Kenneth Wenger is an author, a research scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University, and CTO of Squint AI Inc. His research interests lie at the intersection of humans and machines, ensuring that we build a future based on the responsible use of technology.
I also owe a great debt to Kent Beck, whose Extreme Programming Explained: Embrace Change was my first introduction to this kind of thinking. (So Waves of technology platforms The lean startup Customer Development Engineering Greasemonkey compiler Great open source scalability tools from Danga Ideas. for Harvard Business Revie.
Web Startup Lessons Advice from a CTO and Entrepreneur Home About Startup Advice: When to Use a Consulting CTO There are not many to be found. He or she might call himself a “consulting CTO,&# “freelance CTO,&# “on-demand CTO,&# “CTO on call,&# “CTO for hire,&# or just a “technology strategy advisor.&#
What does a CTO do? What does a CTO do? What does a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) do in a high-tech company? So what is the CTO job? First it is to ensure that the company has the best technology. Part of making sure one has the best technology involves reviewing programs and challenging teams.
Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Sunday, September 7, 2008 Customer Development Engineering Yesterday, I had the opportunity to guest lecture again in Steve Blank s entrepreneurship class at the Berkeley-Columbia executive MBA program. Unfortunately, positioning our product as an "IM add-on" was a complete mistake. for Harvard Business Revie.
We have three universities in the top 100 of the Shanghai ranking for engineering and technology. Think of Werner Vogels (CTO of Amazon), Guido van Rossem (founder of Python programming language and senior engineer at Dropbox) or the more senior Gerard Kleisterlee (chairman of Vodafone).
That not only signifies the missed opportunity that BlackBerry is desperately trying to make up for now — following its botched weekend launch of BBM for iOS and Android — but it sees Livingston’s own startup over take the company that gave him his start in the technology world. “I I went to university in Waterloo in 2005 for engineering.
Immersive Technology and the Next UI Revolution With each great hardware revolution, technology has undergone an accelerated sprint of user interface and user interaction evolution. The explosion of immersive technologies such as augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) has served as a catalyst to begin this next UI evolution.
This includes creating the Information Security Program, training on secure development of products, and/or implementing the security architecture of their infrastructure. In fact, startups are at the perfect spot to implement a rock solid program at their foundational level, and then eventually grow it from there.
Mass TLC Unconference : Large annual conference put on by the MA Technology Leadership Council. Olin College Foundry Program. link] – Not a meetup, but a great mentorship program started by serial CTO Sean Lindsay. Startup Leadership Program – International mentorship program with over 100 startups participating.
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