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

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

APRIL 18, 2012

Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners - a go to resource here in LA for recruiting C-level positions at startups - was nice enough to compile some data again this year (see last year's Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data ). Or they are looking at Hiring a CTO and want to see what salary and equity ranges look like.

CTO Hire 294

CTO Hire Salary Equity Los Angeles 294

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

Using my StartupRoar as a radar, I came across a great post by Gabriel Weinberg Do you really need a full-time hire for that? Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. In other words, they come in asking for help with sourcing and hiring.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO Los Angeles 205

Hunter Walker

DECEMBER 30, 2024

To customers, to investors, to press, to team members, to potential hires, to partners. Even if you’re the most technical CTO out there, you have to get comfortable with this reality. Hiring a recruiter doesn’t solve for this. As a cofounder you are *always* selling.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Sales CTO Hire Cofounder 150

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

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? So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering.

CTO 168

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

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

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

DECEMBER 10, 2012

It was like having a bunch of mini- Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions all in one room. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm doing as a Part-Time CTO or Technical Advisor for startups. CTO Founder - Do they really still need a technical advisor? I've talked about this before in Startup CTO or Developer.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 332

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

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 understand the product management side of the product well enough to guide the technology in a complementary way. They were hired to build stuff. I love blog conversations.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Architecture 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

This is not only sad but incredibly frustrating, because it is so easy to see how a great technology can be developed and commercialized if only - if only the CTO hadn't been impulsive and insecure and brought on a business partner too early in the game. … Mark Suster has similar advice in Hiring at a Startup? Camaraderie?

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Founder 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? I'm always happy to try to help startups figure out how to go after creating their MVP.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. Jane and Dick want to bring in their friend Praveena as CTO, but they don’t know how to structure the compensation. They come up with two options: Hire Praveena as an employee and offer her stock options.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

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

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?

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Los Angeles 211

SiliconHills

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Austin-based Hypergiant Industries, which is focused on creating new products using artificial intelligence for businesses, has hired a heavy-hitter in the software industry, Mohammed Farooq, as its new Chief Technology Officer and GM Products. Farooq also joining Hypergiant Industries’ board of directors.

CTO Hire 105

CTO Hire Artificial Inteligence Hiring Product 105

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

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. Nothing can be more damaging than a misleading or careless CTO.

CTO Hire 73

CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

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

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

In the early days the CEO is the jack-of-all-trades, doer-of-all, famously the “chief janitor” or coffee maker. Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. You hire great people. Do you hire more sales people?

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

TechEmpower

AUGUST 14, 2023

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? We’ve talked about this before in Startup CTO or Developer. Is this person a CTO or a developer?

Technical Review 260

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 260

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions. In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” Carry minimal historical baggage.

Partner 385

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 385

SoCal CTO

MAY 4, 2010

Some great posts from April 2010 that talk to me in terms of being a CTO at a Startup. Redeye VC , April 13, 2010 Startup Development - SoCal CTO , April 23, 2010 Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Ben Casnocha: The Blog , April 15, 2010 Everyone I spoke with loved the idea.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Vesting Startup Venture Capital 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte. Did anybody hold patents that would prevent us from using this technology? I seldom hire patent attorneys during due diligence but this was too important. We hired OSHA regulatory lawyers. We hired IP specialists to review prior art.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review Due Diligence CTO Hire 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

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. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers? He looked stunned.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. For me, if I can help you within a couple hours Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions , I’m happy to do that and I don’t expect compensation or equity for that. Here’s the other aspect that both Tony and I preach: get help.

Advisory Board 241

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup 241

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You hire people who look good on paper. So one of the surest signs you’ve hired a leader is the willingness of his or her former team to re-assemble. When you’re hiring most reference checkers focus on the person’s former bosses. Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

www.inc.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

500|5000 Conference Honorees Resources Press Apply 2011 ); Topics > Leadership and Managing > Human Resources > Job Descriptions > How to Hire a CTO When its time to add a technologist to your slate of executives, what are the best practices to follow? Some companies have a CTO focused on operations under the CIO.

Fractional CTO 42

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Hiring 42

TechEmpower

DECEMBER 11, 2023

While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. cto , product , saas Quality of Work: The end product should not only look good but function as expected. Don't be charmed by an impressive aesthetic at the expense of functional results.

Software Developers 297

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Software 297

TechEmpower

MARCH 4, 2024

This not only speeds up hiring but also lowers the costs associated with lengthy recruitment cycles. AI-driven platforms can also streamline the onboarding process, providing new hires with personalized learning paths, thereby reducing the need for extensive HR personnel involvement and ensuring quicker employee ramp-up.

Generative AI 297

Generative AI CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 297

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. I wrote about that experience here without giving away the details of the business.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review Cofounder CTO Hire 380

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

NOVEMBER 5, 2013

Consider: Would you rather get hired as the CTO of a company with 1,000 daily new, unique, qualified visitors with no product, or the CTO of a company with a stable product and 10 uniques visits to the home page? If not, solving that is much harder and much more outside your control than building software.

Fractional CTO 310

Fractional CTO Coder CTO Hire Design 310

SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

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.

CTO Hire 170

CTO Hire Developer Founder Startup 170

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

San Francisco South Africa CTO Hire Fractional CTO 322

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 Finding Good Developers in Los Angeles? Im part of a CTO group that meets once a month to discuss various topics. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California CTO Hire 150

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

As the emeritus Chief Technology Officer of the United States, he still connects government and Silicon Valley. He’ll talk about making a profit and making a difference in a conversation with New Media Ventures’ Christie George. Todd Park convened the team that saved Obamacare.

Lean 165

Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165