article thumbnail

Building Your MVP as a Non-Technical Founder

SoCal CTO

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending.

article thumbnail

If You Don’t Like Sales, Don’t Start a Company

Hunter Walker

As a cofounder you are *always* selling. 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. Having a cofounder who loves selling doesn’t (fully) solve for this.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Finding and Growing the Islands of Innovation inside a large company – Action Plan for A New CTO

Steve Blank

How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six months as a new CTO thinking you’re making progress when the status quo is working to keep you at bay? But this is the first time he was the CTO of a company this size.

CTO 368
article thumbnail

Hiring Developers Before Product/Market Fit?

SoCal CTO

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. In many cases, during my Free Startup CTO Consulting Session with them, we discuss where they are in in the process. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. Far from it.

CTO Hire 205
article thumbnail

Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP

SoCal CTO

Have you conducted Problem, Solution and Feature Interviews with customers? Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ? See Investors, MVPs and Evidence of Traction. Have you Documented Your MVP for Your Developer s? Don't be fooled by a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development.

article thumbnail

5 Keys To Negotiating Your Fair Share Of Any Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

Value factors include your related product breadth and depth, relationships with thought leaders, key vendors, and large potential customers. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder. Naïve cofounders have found themselves squeezed out in some well-known cases, including Facebook. But don’t get greedy.

Cofounder 435
article thumbnail

5 Equity Distribution Parameters For Key Contributors

Startup Professionals Musings

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Each cofounder should get equity for value, based on these key variables: Lived a key role in a previous startup.