SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

It may give non-technical founders a bit more insight into working styles when it comes to developers. If you’ve ever seen an athlete use a big word in a slightly wrong way, that’s how you sound when you use technical language and you don’t quite know what it means. I.e., they need a developer more than they need a CTO.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The trusted leader. The industry veteran.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

When I talk with early-stage companies, often the discussion starts with them asking me about Hiring a CTO for Your Startup , or Finding a Technical Cofounder for Your Startup or How to Find Programmers for Your Startup. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. Far from it.

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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.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles. Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ? What's going to go wrong? Have you Documented Your MVP for Your Developer s? Don't be fooled by a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Developers Software Development 219

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 5, 2023

Technology is so key to every business these days that experienced business-smart but non-tech entrepreneurs are feeling deeper and deeper in the hole. Even if they realize that they need real technical strength at the top, they are not sure how to attract and select the talent and expertise they really need.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 6, 2021

New entrepreneurs, especially technical ones, are excited by early adopters, and tend to focus on their feedback, which will always suggest more product features and options. Maintaining business momentum requires constant analysis and vigilance for market and technology changes, as well an internal focus on optimization.

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Technical Review Technical Cofounder Advisory Board Cofounder 400

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The trusted leader. The industry veteran.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 308

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

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Steve Blank

SEPTEMBER 3, 2014

A startup is not just about the idea, it’s about testing and then implementing the idea. neither you nor your cofounder can code and you’re building a mobile app? This startup was broken at multiple levels. In fact, it wasn’t even a startup. There were three problems with Dave’s startup. Book of Five Rings.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Another major hire was Ryan Lissack who joined as CTO. Ryan was not only a senior engineer at Salesforce.com (he ran mobile and also ran content management) but was also my cofounder at Koral and lead architect at BuildOnline. Ynon started as shareholder, board member & advisor and switches to full-time executive.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 13, 2013

One of my favorite events last year was attending Startup Grind where I got to interview Clayton Christensen, author of The Innovator’s Dilemma. ” We talked about my influences as a younger person and what got me started in technology and entrepreneurship. And of course we talked about many of my views of building startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology or money. The value in a startup is all about tangible results, so there is no equity value in the idea alone. Now comes the reality check.

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Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

Steve Blank

MAY 29, 2011

He set up Blackbox.vc, a seed accelerator for technology startups (and one of the tour stops for entrepreneurs from around the world.) They went to work gathering deep knowledege of what makes successful Internet startups. Max and his partners interviewed and analyzed over 650 early-stage Internet startups.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. The value in a startup is all about tangible results, so I see no equity value in the idea alone.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 3, 2022

Startup investors tell me they invest in a new venture with a higher caliber of people, rather than the product or service, and I agree. In my role as a business advisor, I see successful businesses most often emerging from great teams rather than great products.

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 29, 2011

This week Blackbox , founded by entrepreneurs Bjoern Lasse Herrmann and Max Marmer, released its first Startup Genome Report — a 67-page in depth analysis on what makes Silicon Valley startups successful based on profiling over 650 startups. Startups that pivot once or twice times raise 2.5x better user growth.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The trusted leader. The industry veteran.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Startup 144

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. I’ll have to relocate.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 29, 2020

Israeli startups have gained international recognition as cutting-edge enterprises with game-changing potential. While Silicon Valley remains a hub of technological innovation, it is not the only hi-tech enclave where big ideas are brought to the fore in the commercial arena. Intezer.com. Namogoo.com. oz-code.com.

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Cofounder Software Review Israel Technical Cofounder 147

The Next Web

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Andrew is the co-founder and CTO of Parse.ly , a technology startup that provides big data insights to the web’s best publishers. Startups die due to a variety of causes. In 2007, Paul Graham gave a variety of causes for startup death in How Not To Die. Distraction is fatal to startups.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 155

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 9, 2014

success story Blackboard and veteran entrepreneur who’s held several COO and president roles at various startups. Many startup CEOs hire COOs or launch companies with a co-founder carrying the title. But what do COOs actually do for startups? So … What’s the Role of a Startup COO, Exactly?

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SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

I recently posted about the Increase in Early-Stage Startup Activity in Los Angeles. In that post, I mentioned how one of the signals is the big increase in number of startup events and the number of attendees at those events. Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these.

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A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

JULY 4, 2011

Being the founder of Lokad.com , a B2B SaaS startup, I was eager to do the “Right Thing,&# and immediately set up a CRM for sales, a ticketing system for complaints, web forums for whatever, and a handful of email addresses such as billing@lokad.com that would flow to distinct mailboxes, nice and organized. They were clueless.).

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Email Cofounder Technical Review Technical Cofounder 267

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2018

On the other hand, everyone is doing it, so that means more competition, and the market and technology are changing faster than ever before. I suggest the following sequence of startup preparation steps: Create a business entity early to isolate business efforts. Thus you have to do your homework to stay ahead of the crowd.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. The value in a startup is all about tangible results, so I see no equity value in the idea alone.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 13, 2015

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. You need to have a technical genius on the team to get your startup product off the ground. The trusted leader. The industry veteran.

Technical Cofounder 120

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Advisory Board Stock Options 120

Steve Blank

JUNE 11, 2009

Posted on June 11, 2009 by steveblank When my students ask me about whether they should be a founder or cofounder of a startup I ask them to take a walk around the block and ask themselves: Are you comfortable with: Chaos – startups are disorganized Uncertainty – startups never go per plan Are you: Resilient – at times you will fail – badly.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Here are some recent great posts that I’ve come across that generally fall in the intersection of startups and CTOs. They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider.

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rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

Finding Technical Cofounders Is Hard. Yesterday, Michael Pope posted an article titled Technical Cofounders Are a Myth. He argued that software engineers don’t finish what they start, and that you’re better off paying a technical person than partnering with one. Tuesday, August 17, 2010.

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Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 4, 2008

(Maybe youd like to start with The lean startup , How to listen to customers , or What does a startup CTO actually do? ) He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU.

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ReadWriteStart

OCTOBER 4, 2012

Recently several entrepreneurs in New York City got together to do just that, holding the inaugural Startup Funeral to honor the memory of three dead technology companies. Every startup has a launch party, but what happens when a startup dies?” No one is around to commemorate the life of that startup.

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bizthoughts.mikelee.org

MARCH 8, 2012

BizThoughts Thoughts about business, technology, the web & entrepreneurship About Booklist Contact Nov 15 2011 Finding a Technical Cofounder By Mike Lee Categories: Entrepreneurship , Leadership Since I have a technical background, I get about one offer a month to join some engineering team, or to be a technical cofounder.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Technical Review Software Review 40

ryanwaggoner.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Me My Work Hire Me Contact Subscribe How to find a technical cofounder 09.10.10 Posted in Development , Entrepreneurship , Posts , Technology by Ryan W. These “startups&# are almost always mostly-non-technical founders offering 1-2% premoney for a “lead developer&# position.

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Technical Cofounder Technical Review Cofounder Software Review 40

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 25, 2017

This movement, coupled with free websites and apps, makes it possible for almost any technical person to start a business. This technology is not only spawning a new generation of entrepreneurs, but is also changing the educational landscape, all the way down to early grade school. Accelerates the trend to higher purpose startups.

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blog.nahurst.com

JULY 19, 2010

Nathan Hursts Blog Thoughts on Software, Technology, and Startups « Back to blog Im on the technical side of entrepreneurship in NYC. The graphic below balances the risks cofounders take with their relative contributions to help answer this question. I love programming, board games, and my wife.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2019

Image via Max Pixel Startup investors tell me they invest in a new venture with a higher caliber of people, rather than the product or service, and I agree. In my role as a business advisor, I see successful businesses most often emerging from great teams rather than great products.

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Hiring Technical Cofounder Cofounder Retention 184