SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2007

I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. I also found this interesting graphic of the changing needs around the CTO role in different size/type companies that somewhat echoes my experience. So, what is my role as an acting CTO? Great question.

Startup 231

Startup CTO Hire Technical Advisors Technical Review 231

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Last week a company we enthusiastically backed, uBeam , led by a very special entrepreneur, 25-year-old Meredith Perry , announced a $10 million round of financing. uBeam’s tech does work and I have safely seen it demo’d in the real life many times. Now they are partners. Working on it. And being ambitious.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 13, 2016

in funding. The company said the expansion comes due to the hiring of a new CEO, SoCal startup vet Jay Goss, to lead the company. Goss has previously helped to run such companies as Numedeon, EternalSpace, Mogreet, RxVantage, Kumba Health and ExecuSurv, and also was an executive at Disney.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Mogreet SoCal Southern California 100

socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2018

We spoke with Dave Fink , CEO and co-founder of Posite, and Jonathan Neddenriep , co-founder and CTO of the company, to learn more. Dave Fink: Postie is a building a technology platform with a mission of making direct mail marketing behave as easily and dynamically as your favorite, programmatic channels. What is Postie?

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Marketing 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

He eventually founded and sold consumer health firm ViSalus to a public company and is now back making investments, in technology companies, as a venture capitalist here at Los Angeles-based HashtagOne (www.hashtagone.com). After we sold it to that public company, I founded HashtagOne. It's all about leverage.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

Rufus Labs is one of a number of hardware startups which have started to proliferate in the community, due to low cost hardware, 3D printing, and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Gabe Grifoni: At Rufus Labs, we are focused heavily on building wearables and technology in a wearable platform for the enterprise.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

We spoke with Michael Chasin, the company''s co-founder, about the startup. You fill out the short questionnaire, lawyers submit their price quotes, and they get hired. One day, I was talking with a friend who was trying to develop and app for a school event, and had created his own app creation company. What''s LawKick about?

Help 240

Help Startup CTO Hire Pricing 240

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In I spent nearly a decade building software for large companies and then advising companies on the same. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2012

As a hiring manager, and as the former CTO of Buy.com, Navid Nobakht , Co-Founder of Recmnd.Me ([link] had a problem--how to really figure out if someone he was hiring could actually execute. The problem we're trying to solve, is one I found from in my experience as a hiring manager in the IT industry.

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire Startup Sites Technical Review 147

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Eventually a successful startup will grow into a big company. Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” The company hasn’t really reached ‘ escape velocity ‘ which means it must not be working.”

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Last week, Santa Monica-based Revolution Prep announced its first, institutional round of funding, worth $15M, from Kennet Partners. The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. To hear about the company, we spoke with Ramit Varma , co-founder of the company.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

I spent an hour on the phone working with Sam Rosen, the CEO of MakeSpace on a senior exec he is considering hiring. I spent an hour across two phone calls with him telling him why I believe MakeSpace will be a billion dollar company (which I do). I then traded emails with two former senior tech professionals in LA.

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

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. It depends on the business, people, technologies, etc. Each situation is just a bit different.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 1, 2014

It’s the company that evokes fear into more startups and venture capitalists looking to fund eCommerce businesses than any other potential competitor. After 9 months it was time to raise seed capital and go test drive our new software and processes. And could we then compete?” ” type questions.

Technical Review 380

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire Startup 380

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. The United States is now a debtor nation to China and that the bill is about to come due. Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. These are probably the two sites where I've posted the most reviews.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. I’ve always been a big believer that just a couple of key individuals make all of the difference in a company’s success.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

It’s my belief that through exceptional leadership you attract great teams that do more than the sum of the parts. Nearly every company faces its crisis moments and only through the inspiration , focus and dedication of the leadership can you motivate teams to dig in deep and come out the other side stronger. ON LEADERSHIP.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

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. In the real world, the "idea" is a very small part of the overall equation. Sacrifice and time commitment.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

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. In the real world, the "idea" is a very small part of the overall equation. Sacrifice and time commitment.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91