SoCal CTO
JULY 23, 2012
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?
SoCal CTO
MARCH 4, 2010
Background This post partly really came about as a result of a great conversation yesterday with David Croslin a former CTO at HP who recently conducted an interesting experiment. This is actually fairly common and I think it’s a bit challenging in that the technology roles (from technology advisor to CTO) in a startup vary widely.
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Both Sides of the Table
FEBRUARY 7, 2013
Because I am true to the hiring practices I preach, I wanted a strong exec who would “ punch above their weightclass ” by taking a job they hadn’t yet done but would hugely aspire to and thus work harder to out perform. And we wanted a head of global marketing. It’s more convenient for both sides.
Both Sides of the Table
NOVEMBER 5, 2014
We hired outside experts. But my chips are in on uBeam and I’m not afraid to put my reputation on the line the same way entrepreneurs must each day. Marc Berte, the CTO, and a masters from MIT, is exceptionally gifted. What about battery charge times? I have witnessed it working. I did not lose my hearing.
Both Sides of the Table
JULY 22, 2010
I don’t feel that as a VC sneaking in nefarious terms into a term sheet that the entrepreneur doesn’t understand is a good way to build a long-term relationship nor to build a long-term reputation but this does happen and more frequently than we all would like. You’ll need to hire and retain talen to grow your company.
SoCal CTO
OCTOBER 5, 2010
Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Status / reputation. 8220; His three things (worth reading his whole post anyway) are set vision/strategy and communicate broadly, recruit/hire/retain top talent, and make sure there’s enough cash in the bank.
Steve Blank
OCTOBER 10, 2023
Unless you can translate how your skills provide commercial value, you won’t get hired. Meanwhile, three years before I left the Agency I had done a cold outreach on LinkedIn to the person I suspected was the hiring manager for a job advertisement for a company that I liked. You will get asked a question like this.
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