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. Later he posted about his experience in Challenges of Startups.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. 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.

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 99

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Actively pursue mergers and acquisitions. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps. External scanning for resources.

Acquisition 88

Acquisition CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 88

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

Fred Wilson also wrote on a similar topic in his usual more succinct manner , with a great quote being: “One thing I know for sure is that those who advise and invest in startups cannot and should not meddle in the day to day decision making. It’s harmful and hurtful to the startup and those that lead it. ” PR.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Actively pursue mergers and acquisitions. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps. External scanning for resources.

CTO Hire 91

CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development Resource 91

socalTECH

APRIL 24, 2019

Anyone who hires anyone, or has ever looked for a jobs knows how important a resume is. The startup has developed a system which uses information from online forums, source code sharing, technical communities, and the like to help find and rank technical talent. How did you end up starting the company?

Sites 240

Sites Startup Tool CTO Hire 240

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. A good overall example is the synergy between Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as well as long-time Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. All partners have compatible work styles.

Software Review 88

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 88

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. He blogs to 10,000 web entrepreneurs at Software by Rob and co-hosts the podcast Startups for the Rest of Us.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time. I’ve never met a founder who wasn’t acutely aware of his or her ticking time bomb and the sense that failure and humiliation is a real possibility. It’s why so few can really start a business from scratch.

Funding 238

Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ).

CTO Hire 309

CTO Hire Organization Google Course 309

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. The easy answer of splitting it equally among all co-founders, since there is minimal value at that point, is usually the worst possible answer, and often results in a later startup failure due to an obvious inequity.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2012

That means that the site now allows users to sign-up and have their content personalized based on their interests. You can sign-up via the "Personalize Your Content" button on the right side of the interface shown to the right of the red arrow below. You can always visit and manually select interests as well.

CTO Hire 175

CTO Hire Newsletter Content Sites 175

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 CTO Hire CTO Coach Develop 150

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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 62

Equity Startup Patents CTO Hire 62

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 19, 2013

Earlier this week, a new startup, Porch (www.porch.com), launched its service to let people get a look at their neighbor''s home improvement projects -- complete with before and after photos, costs, and details on contractors and more. What inspired you to start the company? After finishing up my degree, we had a great 3.5

Startup 133

Startup Guide CTO Hire Organization 133

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

Lately the topic of leadership & teams has been coming up a lot in my daily life. You do a startup and decide you want somebody to step in and run the company so you can focus on technical excellence. It’s part of my ethos. Only then can I even care about product, market or their nebulous “fit.&#.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 95

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 95

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. The easy answer of splitting it equally among all co-founders, since there is minimal value at that point, is usually the worst possible answer, and often results in a later startup failure due to an obvious inequity.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91

socalTECH

MAY 2, 2017

He was just trying to collect more data for his startup on what was happening on real estate deals that the company had been referring to brokers. However, starting in 2015, we found that creating this was really hard. He's the former CTO at Stocktwits, and he did the analysis and found out a lot of stuff.

Sales 145

Sales Startup Email Tool 145

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

We caught up with Ryan (who calls himself an "anti-VC") to hear more about his investment firm, which has invested in such companies as Heal , Elite Daily , Saucey , and FragMob. Tell us a bit of the story on how you started HashtagOne? We want to have startups we can get productive or generating revenue pretty quickly.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, February 23, 2007 Events and Networking in Los Angeles One of the issues I discussed in Innovation and Geography was that the geography and traffic in Los Angeles generally makes it more difficult for networking. Startup Co-Founders: If You Cant Recruit Em, Should You Join Em?

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking CTO Coach Angel 150

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Jeff Curie: I''ve been a startup guy here in Orange County for a long time. I was hired to head up strategy, marketing development, and product management. We grew that up, and did very well, and eventually sold it to IBM. Between Greg and Alan, we''ve come up with a very innovative way to solve this problem.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions.

Software Review 96

Software Review CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 96

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2014

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions.

Software Review 107

Software Review Entrepreneur CTO Hire Outsource Development 107

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. Maybe this meme will help.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

It came from my weekend activities. I spent an hour on the phone working with Sam Rosen, the CEO of MakeSpace on a senior exec he is considering hiring. I will soon announce a few fundings (not yet closed, sorry) and I’m beginning to help them think about how to ramp up their engineering teams. Whom to Meet? .”

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 16, 2014

We recently sat down with Luc Berlin, co-founder of Miigle, a SoCal startup that has an aggressive global mission to bring entrepreneurs together from around the world. We followed up with Luc to see just how he’s been managing the entrepreneurial waters. The quintessential problem that every startup has is one of visibility.

SoCal 104

SoCal Southern California Startup Platform 104

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. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Equity 104

Equity Patents Startup CTO Hire 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. So I was surprised at the sheer volumes of decisions that had to be made when I became a startup CEO. Somebody asks whether you plan to set up 401k’s and do contribution matching. I would far rather have some messes to clean up than to never have them cross the line trying.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One.” The feedback was good, but some readers asked me to be a bit more specific on attributes that might indicate an ideal startup partner. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Messenger : Thorsten von Eicken , RightScale’s Co-Founder and CTO, Chief Architect at Citrix Online (formerly Expertcity) and Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and UC Santa Barbara. Does the world really need more servers in more datacenters gobbling up more power to send more tweets and Facebook pages around the world?

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2010

Robin's latest startup is Internships.com (www.internships.com), an online site focused on aggregating internship opportunities and providing resources to potential interns. We spoke to Robin about the new startup, his executive team, as well as his angel investing activity here. How did you decide to start Internships.com?

Startup 223

Startup Content Sites CTO Coach 223

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m looking to turn dots into lines over time. I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 And I think about the “Seattle issue&# as a metaphor for startups and business in general.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

A week ago I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ How to Select an Ideal Startup Co-Founder ”. 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 hiring decisions. No historical baggage.

Software Review 92

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 92

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. If you team with a partner who likes to sleep late, and reserves the weekend for other activities, the partnership will likely not work. All partners have compatible work styles.

Software Review 56

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach 56