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. Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? And do I fit as a Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO ? He needed some kind of CTO and as well Developers.

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2007

I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. I also found this interesting graphic of the changing needs around the CTO role in different size/type companies that somewhat echoes my experience. During Stabilization, often the focus is transitioning to a full-time CTO.

Fractional CTO 231

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Early Stage 231

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?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

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

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence CTO Hire 418

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

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

He hired his co-founder and CTO Adam LeVasseur who set out to build systems to allow you to see all of your storage items in a beautiful app but also to build tech for logistics, driver management, customer service, billing and so forth. Tech Market Analysis Upfront Ventures makespace' Full on burger flipping mode.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

The press around the raise & company was fantastic and the promise of their technology – wireless charging that works as easily as WiFi – would positively affect many of our lives. uBeam’s tech does work and I have safely seen it demo’d in the real life many times. Working on it. And being ambitious.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review South Korea San Francisco Software Review 417

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. Now, most often technical advisors are part of a broader advisory board.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Advisory Board Technology Fractional CTO 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. It depends on the business, people, technologies, etc. Each situation is just a bit different.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Fractional CTO Technology CTO Hire 170

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

As your organization grows and you hire senior staff where you are no longer managing every employee directly the issue of how to manage people that are not your “direct&# reports arises. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. There’s a guy in Los Angeles that I met at several tech networking events. I said that was my point.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

Focusing on generative AI applications in a select few corporate functions can contribute to a significant portion of the technology's overall impact. This technological integration into software engineering not only enhances the productivity of development teams but also ensures that IT infrastructures are robust and reliable.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 297

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. The “span of control” for a growing tech startup is probably 6-9 people. You hire great people. You help them prioritize their objectives and review the results.

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

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. After all, that’s what tech innovation is all about.

Developer 520

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO CTO Hire 520

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering. Hire a CEO to Go Public. If the founder was lucky, he got to stay as chairman or CTO.

Founder 281

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews. It may be that all the doomsayers are right.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

Are specific technologies or platforms involved in your project? Who was involved in those projects, and are they still part of the firm? Do they have experience with the technologies involved in your project? Were they finished on time and on budget? What are the review periods and your responsibility in the process?

Software Developers 297

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 297

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. Have an account? Solid leadership is essential to the success of any team.

CTO Hire 73

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

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. Rachel Blankstein.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. 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

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” ” There’s an allowance for a period of time where there’s “slow or no growth” while you’re figuring things out. Business that are innovative.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

The Startup Magazine

JANUARY 8, 2019

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.

Technical Review 137

Technical Review CTO Hire Silicon Valley Software Engineering 137

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

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

Up and Running

OCTOBER 13, 2022

As you find your footing and begin to scale, you might feel ready to hire a formal executive team. What’s right for one company may not make sense for another, but the goal is always the same — to hire talent that will ultimately help the business thrive. When is the right time to hire an executive team?

CTO Hire 163

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Hiring 163

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Hiring Has Changed: Before the press was a way of generating interest for hiring. However with so many companies being funded these days, just getting a mention in a tech blog doesn’t really impact job seekers. Now the employees carry your technology into the enterprise via their own phone and cloud services.

Technical Review 127

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 127

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 3, 2008

Or atleast 40% of the time you are a true Analysis Ninja, even if 60% of the time you are a glorified Reporting Squirrel! 3) I am simply assuming you are good at tools and some technical stuff and some business stuff. For the longest time, for example, I was well compensated for being a Senior Individual Contributor.

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Analytics Salary Fractional CTO 115

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

I spent an hour on the phone working with Sam Rosen, the CEO of MakeSpace on a senior exec he is considering hiring. I reviewed an email from Kara Nortman, the CEO of Moonfrye who is working on putting together venture debt. I then traded emails with two former senior tech professionals in LA.

Networking 366

Networking CTO Hire Technical Review Email 366

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. It’s a recipe for failure.

New York 132

New York CTO Hire Technical Review New York City 132

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Reading how she moved in 2021 from CIA ops into a quantum technology company offered insightful career transition advice for those leaving her agency. Below is the first of her three-part series. —- At least a few times a month, people looking to jump ask about my transition, which has led to me consolidating my answers below.

Government 196

Government CTO Hire Technical Review Salary 196

blog.alinelerner.com

JUNE 21, 2013

making technical recruiting suck less. Lessons from a year’s worth of hiring data. I ran technical recruiting at TrialPay for a year before going off to start my own agency. As soon as you get someone who’s never been an engineer making hiring decisions, you need to set up proxies for aptitude. Jun 21, 2013.

CTO Hire 98

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 98

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 13, 2022

What’s harder to notice for a founder is all of the things that a founder isn’t being asked to review in detail that a VC has no problem trusting the founder on. Founders suffer enough from imposter syndrome without investors constantly getting all up in their s**t as if they don’t trust them. Well, on certain things, they don’t.

Founder 166

Founder Fiji CTO Hire Term Sheet 166

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

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Artificial Intelligence is an important, foundational technology that gets more important every year and will be used to solve more and more problems going forward. These events mean that technology is advancing fast enough to make better decisions than humans in order to accomplish a given task. Chris Rust, Clear Ventures).

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Israel Technical Review Startup 122

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

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.&#

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Fractional VPE 40