SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

I've posted quite a few things on the topics associated with being a Startup CTO. Here are some resources that come from other sources: Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do? Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Equity 175

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 19, 2011

I've posted quite a few things on the topics associated with being a Startup CTO. Here are some resources that come from other sources: Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do? Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Equity 175

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. For example, suppose you're just two founders and you want to hire an additional hacker who's so good you feel he'll increase the average outcome of the whole company by 20%. n = (1.2 - 1)/1.2 =.167. and we have 11.1%

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

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?

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 167

SoCal CTO

MARCH 2, 2015

As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Los Angeles CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 150

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

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?

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 150

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. The vesting schedule protects each of the co-founders in case one gets hit by a bus or decides to drop the project after a short period of time. Jane and Dick want to bring in their friend Praveena as CTO, but they don’t know how to structure the compensation.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've talked about that in lots of other posts, so you can visit some of these to help determine what you specifically need: Startup CTO or Developer Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Key ingredients in the equation are: How complex is the system? Do you have dollars to pay for development?

Technical Cofounder 211

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Los Angeles 211

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

they need a developer more than they need a CTO. I just had a fellow CTO ask me about a particular technical design problem and several directions they could go and ask for my thoughts on the tradeoffs for those different choices. Many are not interested in 3rd party technologies that can streamline development.

Technical Cofounder 280

Technical Cofounder Developer Fractional CTO CTO Hire 280

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. It’s lost salary for a period of time. About 18 months ago in early 2008 we hired an analyst (pre-MBA), but wanted to wait until after Summer to hire a post-MBA associate. Pay me half salary until the fund is closed.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Ryan was the most talented technologist we had hired at BuildOnline. We hired Ryan at a really young age and without a tremendous amount of prior experience. We had a strategy of hiring people really young because we couldn’t afford to hire too many senior people. I knew that meant he wouldn’t come back.

San Francisco 322

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YoungUpstarts

SEPTEMBER 15, 2015

The right advisor can have a greater impact on the success of your small business than any other hire you ever make. Have a CTO Advisor Provide Their Guidance & Due Diligence Suggestions on a Large Upcoming Technology Expenditure. It’s time small businesses started hiring more advisors.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Small Business Hiring 100

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 16, 2020

Being relatively a new service trend in today’s tech-driven world, CTO-as-a-Service (CaaS) is notably gaining its momentum. Though CTO as a traditional full-time position exists for decades, some companies do not feel they need a technology executive. Ideal scenario assumes there’s a CTO in house. By referring to ?TO-as-a-Service

Fractional CTO 85

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 85

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 3, 2008

My goal is to climb the ranks and increase my salary." I get many emails in the spirit of this one and thought it was about time I wrote a proper post about it. I am getting to how you can increase your salary part. It is quite likely that you'll sit in the IT (CTO / CIO) function. Please stick with me.

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Analytics Salary Fractional CTO 115

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There are those amongst us the are willing to abandon the comforts of a job with a salary and perhaps the prestige of being able to tell family members, loved ones and friends that “I work for Google, Goldman Sachs, Apple, FedEx, Verizon or Coca Cola” and instead put out selves out there to potentially look stupid one day.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review South Korea San Francisco Software Review 417

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Cofounders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Hire a CEO to Go Public. The VCs would hire a CEO with a track record who looked and acted like the type of CEO Wall Street bankers expected to see in large companies. The role of the independent member was typically to tell the founding CEO that the VCs were hiring a new CEO.). People had to actually pay you for your product.

Founder 281

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This is going to be BIG.

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

A week or so ago, we launched the Key Hire Wire at First Round. You will initially spend majority of time personally working with individual accounts and coaching sales team. CTO, Modcloth – San Francisco, CA (corrected from e-mail version) Remember that girl from back home? How do you like them apples?

Part-Time VPE 92

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Engineer Sales 92

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

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. It’s worth spending time on recruiting. And you need to do it sooner rather than later. Don’t be fooled by titles.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Unless you can translate how your skills provide commercial value, you won’t get hired. I’ll turn my salary into millions of dollars in returns or investments within two years – not singlehandedly – but in a cooperative way that leverages many parts of the company. You will get asked a question like this.

Government 196

Government CTO Hire Technical Review Salary 196

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

In order to be a successful tech startup, the team must consist of a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) level member to help with the technology plan. This is generally achieved in one of the following ways: CTO Level Co-Founder (Equity). CTO Level Board Member or dedicated Adviser (Free or Equity). CTO Employee (Salary).

CTO Hire 55

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

The Next Web

OCTOBER 7, 2013

They were referring to non-founder engineers, most commonly the first hire for technology businesses. Every time a startup raises capital, all common shareholders are diluted. In cases where a startup is sold within a few years time, there is often acceleration agreements for unvested shares. How do you feel about that number?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Therefore, if you want to bring an MVP ( Minimum Viable Product ) to market, Werdelin approximates that you’ll need $50,000 to $250,000 , depending on the skill sets of the developers and designers you hire. You have to ensure that the right people come in at the right time, and you have the right decor, ambiance and music.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

konamoxt.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

January 21, 2009 Why Your Startup Can’t Afford To NOT Hire a CTO As I mentioned in my last post, one of the many things I do as an entrepreneur is to advise other start up companies. One of the common requests I get as an adviser is the help interview and vet potential CTO candidates. So what are you to do? This is critical!

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire CTO Hiring Engineer 40

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 14, 2009

First, early in the post, Mark mentions: The idea behind the meetup is to connect technology startups with prospective hires who may be interested to work for “alternative compensation”–e.g., reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc.

Software Developers 150

Software Developers Software Development Software Developer 150

The Next Web

OCTOBER 10, 2013

Hire everyone you need as an employee. After launching our Windows online backup service five years ago, our CTO pitched that we should focus on launching our Mac version next. At that time, Mac computers made up a mere 6 percent of the market and I argued we needed to focus on other areas. One” – You have to have a cofounder.

Cofounder 143

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Kenya Dilution 143

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

As the conversation began to get down to how much stock and salary we could offer van Dam, we left the barber to finish his work and went to a payphone to call our CEO to confirm the deal. Wasn’t he a CTO or something? (He We were painting a picture of hypertext on every desktop computer. The response from across the country?

North Carolina 133

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 133

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

I was originally hired as a contractor, developing a SaaS app from scratch, including DB design and coding. Along the way, I was hired full time (I believe about 8 months after I started), a coder from India was hired and another contractor was added to the team. The salary offered (and accepted) was quite low.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. For your first key hires, three, five, maybe as much as ten, you will probably not be able to use any kind of formula. First, a caveat. Director Level: 0.25x.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

They can easily get great benefits and a six figure salary. Now, however, it really is time to have some dedicated partners on this project to build the vision, and I’m starting the search for technical co-founder again. If yes, hire a contract developer. Tuesday, August 17, 2010 e.p.c.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Early employees are paid a salary from day 1, don't have to have the reputation/connections to raise money, take on much less risk, and often have much more information about the company (team so far, financials, product traction/progress) when they decide to join than the founders do when they found the company.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

Duct Tape Marketing

SEPTEMBER 5, 2019

It’s part of the product.” Jono Bacon: Because the companies that tend to fail in this is they hire a community manager and that community manager essentially acts as like an ambassador to the community. ” And then you provide guidance to your staff members for how to participate in that. They answer a question.

Community 73

Community Social Media Africa Kansas City 73

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

So yes, I want to hire somebody with really high IQ and EQ but not somebody who is more knowledgeable at your specific skill set than you are. or; “I don’t have enough money to hire my team yet. We’ve met three times over 18 months and you still have no team. How can I hire a team without any money?

Leadership 363

Leadership CTO Hire Technical Review Cofounder 363