SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. Now I feel like I was part of the team to build the company but equity valuation offered to me is not fair. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs.

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 167

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners was nice enough to compile some data on Start CTO Salary and Equity at Venture Backed Companies for the LA CTO Forum and present last year. The data is a bit tough to deal with via a post, so I've shared it two ways: You can find a PDF with some analysis at: CTO Equity Compensation PDF.

CTO Hire 301

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Startup 301

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 Equity Demand Resource 294

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up. Rather they should get a part-time Acting CTO who can help close the gap.

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

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 CTO Coach Startup Equity 175

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. Now I feel like I was part of the team to build the company but equity valuation offered to me is not fair. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 150

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 28, 2014

Irvine-based Adaptive Medias , the developer of programmatic advertising technology which acquired StartEngine''s Ember back in December, said Thursday that it has named Bryan Nguyen as its Chief Technology Officer. Ventures, Audioo, BetterPPC, and others, and also is an investor in a number of local venture funds.

Media 153

Media Chief Technology Officer Advertising Entrepreneur 153

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 CTO Coach Resource Startup 175

socalTECH

MAY 14, 2019

Santa Barbara-based Curtail , a new cybersecurity startup which recently landed $3.25M in funding, said this morning that it has named two VPs. According to the startup, Deborah Scanlon will serve as vice president of strategic sales, and Nigel Quinnin will take on the role of vice president of development at the company.

Funding 133

Funding Chief Technology Officer Santa Barbara Seed Funding 133

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

TechCrunch LA

SEPTEMBER 10, 2020

million from LA’s own venture fund, Upfront Ventures and a clutch of security experts. For chief executive Artyom Poghosyan and chief technology officer Alex Gudanis, Britive is simply the latest initiative in a decades-long effort to reshape security technology.

Los Angeles 308

Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Culver City Angel 308

socalTECH

DECEMBER 15, 2021

Los Angeles-based Papaya, a fintech startup developing a mobile bill payment application, says it has raised $50M in a Series B funding. The funding was led by Bessemer Venture Partners, and also included Sequoia Capital, Acrew Capital, 01 Advisors, Mucker Capital, Fika Ventures, F-Prime, and Sound Ventures.

Mobile 113

Mobile Chief Technology Officer Idealab Los Angeles 113

socalTECH

JUNE 25, 2014

Vessel , a new startup founded by former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar and CTO Richard Tom, has raised a round of funding from Benchmark Capital, Greylock Partners, and Bezos Expeditions. Benchmark''s Bill Gurley and Greylock''s David Sze have both joined the company''s board as part of the funding. READ MORE>>.

Hulu 147

Hulu Funding Company Companies 147

socalTECH

JUNE 22, 2011

Pasadena-based OnGreen , the clean technology, funding marketplace headed by Nikhil Jain, said this week that it has named Mark Richards as its Chief Technology Officer. OnGreen operates an online marketplace which allows companies to find investors for their clean technology projects and businesses.

Chief Technology Officer 140

Chief Technology Officer Hulu Pasadena Media 140

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 17, 2020

in a seed funding round. The funding came from Allergan Aethetics and Fortunis Capital. According to the company, the new funding will go to advance development of its therapeutic solution to cure hair loss. The funding from Fortunis Capital came out of its Impact Fund. as Chief Technology Officer.

Chief Technology Officer 124

Chief Technology Officer Seed Funding San Diego Resource 124

socalTECH

JULY 27, 2016

The The Stage Fund , a investment and acquisition firm focused on acquiring turnaround companies, has tapped a longtime Southern California entrepreneur, Dan Tamkin , as a new Managing Partner in Los Angeles. According to the fund, Tamkin will be setting up a West Coast office for the fund, which is based in Denver, Colorado.

Los Angeles 100

Los Angeles Chief Technology Officer Funding Angel 100

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

San Diego-based machine learning software developer Point Predictive has raised a new, Series B growth financing round, the company announced this morning. Size of the new funding round was not announced. Housman was most recently Chief Data Science Officer at RappportBoost.ai. READ MORE>>.

Artificial Inteligence 124

Artificial Inteligence Chief Technology Officer San Diego Software Development 124

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 2, 2018

Irvine-based Bitvore , the big data, artificial intelligence, and data analytics startup, has upped its latest funding round to $14.2M, as part of what appears to be an ongoing $17.75M funding effort. The company's CEO, Jeff Drake, was a founder at Access360 (acquired by IBM), and also served at IBM, Akana, and ServiceMesh.

Artificial Inteligence 170

Artificial Inteligence Tech Coast Angels Funding IBM 170

socalTECH

AUGUST 26, 2021

Orange County-based fintech startup Happy Money, which operates a service to help consumers better manage their money and pay off credit card debt, says it has named Jeff Winner as the company's Interim CEO. The company said its founder, Scott Saunders, will remain Chairman of the company.

Orange County 113

Orange County Chief Technology Officer Funding Help 113

socalTECH

JULY 16, 2013

San Diego-based CyberFlow Analytics has raised $2M in a seed round of funding, to go towards its software for protecting corporate IP from corporate espionage and malware. The firm said the seed round of funding came from Toshiba America Electronics Components.

Chief Technology Officer 170

Chief Technology Officer Seed Funding IP San Diego 170

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 24, 2021

Los Angeles-based startup Emotive, which develops conversational text messaging software, said this morning that it has raised $50M in its Series B funding round. The funding was led by CRV, and also included Mucker Capital, TenOneTen Ventures, plus new investors, Stripes and Vulcan Capital.

Chief Technology Officer 113

Chief Technology Officer SpaceX Commerce Los Angeles 113

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. … Lack of confidence? Camaraderie? Perhaps all of the above.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Startup Equity Sales 150

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 23, 2021

Gates’ call is being met by startups and public companies hailing from everywhere from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv, London to Los Angeles, and Berkeley to… um… Chicago. The company aims to have its first product approved by European regulators by 2023 and notching commercial sales by 2025.

Chief Technology Officer 261

Chief Technology Officer Technical Review Software Review Product 261

TechEmpower

JULY 24, 2023

Still, if you’re a business leader and your developers haven’t asked you these questions, look for a Fractional CTO to help navigate the critical early stage of development. How are you funding this? What level of funding do you currently have? What are some sites or companies in the same space? Wireframes?

Develop 520

Develop Development Technical Review SEO 520

socalTECH

DECEMBER 13, 2022

Santa Barbara-based Beni, a startup which lets users find and buy secondhand apparel and accessories, said this morning that it has raised $5M in funding. According to the company, the funding was spit between a seed round of $4M, and earlier pre-seed and seed funding.

Software 113

Software Seed Funding Santa Barbara Startup 113

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.

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 11, 2020

Well, now those development studios can turn to Pragma , which is building the back-end toolkit for gaming companies so their developers can focus on what they do best — making games. In a way it’s a complement to the front-end game engines from companies like Epic, the creator of Fortnite. The company raised $4.2

Riot Games 135

Riot Games Develop Development Company 135

socalTECH

MARCH 19, 2019

San Diego-based Trovata.io , a developer of software used for automating cash management and for open banking, has named two new executives, the company said on Tuesday. The company said it has named Joseph Drambarean as Chief Technology Officer and Dave McCutcheon as Vice President Sales. Trovata is backed by J.P.

Chief Technology Officer 133

Chief Technology Officer Seed Funding San Diego Sales 133

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

The funding came from private equity investor Primus Capital. Certona said the funding will go towards growing market share, product development, and expanding services and support. The company is led by CEO and co-founder Meyar Sheik; the company's co-founder and CTO is Geoffrey Hueter.

Artificial Inteligence 100

Artificial Inteligence Funding San Diego Equity 100

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2011

Geni said it has named Justin Balthrop as its Chief Technology Officer, and named Michael Stangel as Vice President of Engineering. Geni is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund. The firm also announced a number of other employee promotions and additions, saying it is continuing its "strong growth".

Geni 133

Geni Yammer West Hollywood Chief Technology Officer 133

socalTECH

MAY 19, 2011

Geni said it has named Justin Balthrop as its Chief Technology Officer, and named Michael Stangel as Vice President of Engineering. Geni is venture backed by Charles River Ventures and Founders Fund. The firm also announced a number of other employee promotions and additions, saying it is continuing its "strong growth".

Geni 133

Geni Yammer West Hollywood Chief Technology Officer 133

socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2017

Vector , a developer of micro-satellite launch systems and rocket technology whose founders came from SpaceX, said on Thursday that it has raised $21‌M in a Series A funding. The funding was led by Sequoia Capital, and also included Shasta Ventures and Lightspeed. The company says it has now raised $31M in total.

SpaceX 133

SpaceX Funding Los Angeles Capital 133

TechCrunch LA

JULY 3, 2018

Postie uses a combination of online data collection and an on-demand print and mail technology to give its customers turnaround times on print orders in as little as 24 hours and what the company boasts is the equivalent of online ad-targeting. They aren’t the only ones. Postie has raised $3.5

Dollar Shave Club 232

Dollar Shave Club Chief Technology Officer Advertising Los Angeles 232

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 19, 2016

I’ve spoken before about our desire at Upfront Ventures to fund really big ideas that solve hard problems, are science led and if successful will both have a positive effect on people’s lives as well as make great financial returns. We’re not Pollyannaish about this. In short, we’re after venture returns. They have raised $14 million to date.

Company 207

Company Companies CTO Coach Funding 207

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Lynda.com , the online video education provider which has been one of the region's most successful, bootstrapped companies--is no longer bootstrapped, after inking a massive, $103M growth equity round. According to Eric Robison, the firm's CEO, the funding round will go towards increasing the firm's global reach and expanding content.

Funding 178

Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

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. During Stabilization, often the focus is transitioning to a full-time CTO.

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Startup CTO Hire Technical Advisors Technical Review 231