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

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 281

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

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. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

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. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

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. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. Actually, who will get Steve Case to spend time in Seattle helping communicate the message to local leaders? With VC FDI the community gets more than money.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

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. After a year, shares will vest in monthly or quarterly splits until the full grant is vested. How do you feel about that number?

Engineer 129

Engineer Dilution Option Pool Vesting 129

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

A Part-Time CTO Technology. Depending on the level of complexity and difficulty, it might not be the most efficient use of your time. Communication - Hiring a technical employee early on can sometimes result in a founder developer gap. In Plain English. Archive Jun 20th Sun In-House or Outsource?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

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. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business. So my advice to CTO / Founders?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

How long should people vest – four years? Investors routinely subject founder shares to vesting, but there is no rule that says that founders cannot, or should not, impose vesting on themselves. And the vesting doesn’t necessarily need to be time-based either. Five years? Buffer Pin It Digg Digg.

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.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

The reality however is that entrepreneurs should only play the equity game with newer, very focused firms that specialize in this practice and not traditional work for hire or a blend. Development firms that advertise part equity and cash are simply not mature in defining their model, and thus they have no business taking stakes in others.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

We hired three guys from that batch and paid them in iPhones. Treat everyone you hire like a co-founder. It builds trust and earns buy-in from the people you hire. When you’re hiring folks, don’t promise equity upfront. Tiny, contracting market. Vest, young man. That is what gets people excited.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

As a result, there is a much bigger supply of these people than there are of founders who can get a company to the point of hiring some early employees. Even better, executives will negotiate the acquisition price of their company down; in exchange for a larger amount of post-acquisition retentio n equity and accelerated vesting.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 1, 2007 Entreprenuer Network Great post by Ben Kuo - The Importance of the “Network&# to Entrepreneurs - the informal connections between people in the technology industry here who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next level.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Networking Southern California Los Angeles 150

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

The negativity either impacted investment funding (venture capital fell off a cliff in 2009) or the customers they were targeted as was the case for Untitled Partners who were building a platform for fractional art ownership. Dwelling or being married to a bad idea is not a good way to allocate resources. 3 – Not the right team.

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

blog.expensify.com

APRIL 24, 2012

Update: The end is near, Expensify is hiring a.NET programmer! As you might know, we’re hiring the best programmers in the world. If you are a startup looking to hire really excellent people, take notice of.NET on a resume, and ask why it’s there. Expensify Blog. Expense Reports That Don't Suck. Sjoerd Franken.

Java 107

Java PHP Software Review Coder 107

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

Sacrifice and time commitment. A part-time commitment, while holding down a “real” paying job, is obviously not the same as a full-time executive role, especially if the cash compensation is nonexistent, deferred, or at high risk. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO?

Intellectual Property 252

Intellectual Property Equity Cofounder CTO Hire 252

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Sacrifice and time commitment. A part-time commitment, while holding down a “real” paying job, is obviously not the same as a full-time executive role, especially if the cash compensation is nonexistent, deferred, or at high risk. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO?

Equity 228

Equity Intellectual Property Cofounder CTO Hire 228