Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 16, 2010

Here are 4 areas / companies that I’m excited about: 1. Writing down your weight from your scale is obviously a manual process and it’s tedious. Your measurements are automatically sent via wi-fi to the cloud and stored in a password protected portal viewed on the web or on your iPhone. Enter Withings.

Technical Review 278

Technical Review Software Review Startup SoCal 278

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 14, 2009

I moved into writing software to analyze audience data, and wrote a lot of computer graphics software. In 1986 I started an advertising and public relations firm to serve software and hardware companies, which became a marketing consulting business ( www.Allen.com ) when I moved to L.A. Great stuff. What keeps you up at night?

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking Marketing Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

AUGUST 14, 2009

Great companies are built by having great products. One great company, AppFolio , filmed all of this user interaction and made the DVD available to me. In SoCal we have Crosscut Ventures, Matt Coffin, Mike Jones, Klaus Schauser, etc. They are people who built and sold companies and have a bit of money. Go research it.

Angel 291

Angel Funding Venture Capital Startup 291

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. The bad news is that Finding Developers is Tough Here in Los Angeles and even people willing to pay have a hard time finding Web Development in Los Angeles. Here are some ideas: In your company or other companies. Get to know the developers.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

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. What are related products/companies? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. Do I have to write up the overview?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

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. What are related products/companies? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys. Do I have to write up the overview?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 23, 2013

I have long advised startup companies that if you don’t control your messaging somebody else will and your potential customers will form impressions of you shaped by somebody else or by nobody at all. Yet as obvious as it is to create messaging for your company, many people don’t consider their personal brands.

Technical Advisors 385

Technical Advisors Marketing Startup Venture Capital 385

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2010

Johnson's latest effort is Lunch.com (www.lunch.com), a web site which takes the concepts behind VirtualTourist.com beyond travel, and into lots of other subjects. Johnson: Back in 1999, we started a company called VirtualTourist.com. It was a local, SoCal company right here in Manhattan Beach.

Content 204

Content Startup Sites Manhattan Beach 204

InfoChachkie

NOVEMBER 23, 2015

This latest round valued the company in excess of a billion dollars, entering them into the overly-hyped Unicorn Club. In contrast, low-volume, high-conviction investors like Rincon only invests in a handful new companies each year, making it much more costly (in dollars and effort expended) to invest in a loser.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Technical Review Software Review Southern California 100

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product." But never forget that traction is necessary, but may not be sufficient, to lower the risk perception of investors, and assure an investment.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

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. event I did last fall.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been through many months with them but because of lack of funds, I spent lot of time doing non-technical work for first 4-5 months, spending time with them on putting pitches for investors, cash flows, budgets, writing business plans, product prototype setups etc. But I’m assuming you want to remain at the company.

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 167

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been through many months with them but because of lack of funds, I spent lot of time doing non-technical work for first 4-5 months, spending time with them on putting pitches for investors, cash flows, budgets, writing business plans, product prototype setups etc. But I’m assuming you want to remain at the company.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 150

Tech Zulu Event

MARCH 25, 2014

TZ’s SXSW A-team, Efren Toscano and Justin Sewell, were invited to join the momentous ride alongside other tech innovators and influencers from the Socal reach to participate with Amtrak’s first ever #AmtrakLive live-tweet and AMA thread – to discuss the highly anticipated Amtrak Residency Program.

Entertainment 99

Entertainment Google Entrepreneur Course 99

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. In my view, the very fact that they feel that the technical development of a web startup is only worth a couple percent speaks volumes. We had several emails back and forth where he provided basic details on the concept.

CTO Hire 241

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Over the past 12 months, I've had roughly 284,000 people come visit that site and get exposed to things I write. But the web site visitors are accurate. Be interested in what they write. Plan out how you will interact with what they are writing. I keep my blogs separate from by company web site.

Social Media 222

Social Media Services Media Blogging 222

SoCal Delicious

MAY 6, 2012

Features like this, as well as our daily interviews wouldn’t be possible without the amazing support of our sponsor eMinutes – a law firm here in Los Angeles that focuses on helping entrepreneurs structure their companies. Although a new company, it is already gaining momentum—being featured in European CEO, Playboy, and Da Man Magazine.

Los Angeles 78

Los Angeles Entrepreneur Angel Fractional CTO 78

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 22, 2010

This week I was preparing for my weekly This Week in Venture Capital web show and was researching some of the deals that were announced for the week. One of the companies that just announced $10 million in funding was a company I had never heard of called Huddle. OK, so that could mean a lot of things. billion).

Screening 266

Screening Screencast Web Yammer 266

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Why Every Entrepreneur Should Write and 9 Tips To Get Started - OnStartups , September 27, 2010 "The best part of blogging is the people you will meet"- Hugh MacLeod repeating wisdom from Loic Lemeur to me at the Big Pink at 2 am in South Beach after the Future of Web Apps 2008. Why You Should Write. Kanye West.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

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. Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal Delicious

JANUARY 15, 2010

requestHandler.php [L] Please note that the code above kinda disables the Web server’s error handling. Here are a few ideas how to block rogue (crappy, not behaving, …) Web robots. You don’t need all the balls and whistles (like stats) overloading most scripts available on the Web.

SEO 37

SEO IP PHP Blogging 37

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f@#k you think you f$&kin’ with.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

SoCal Delicious

SEPTEMBER 22, 2008

Write me an e-mail and let me know what youre up to! I’ve been asked a few times recently, “Wow, these analytics you write about are great, but how does a startup begin to bite off the relevant parts? Every web product ultimately has a bunch of user flows contained within it. See the books I recommend to friends.

Startup 29

Startup IP Email Report 29

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2011

500 Hats , February 1, 2010 When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Google Friend Connect for Authentication? First Principles. Steve Blank , January 25, 2010 10 Tips for Adding Game Mechanics to a Non-Gaming Service - ReadWriteStart , September 21, 2010 Startups & VCs: Learn How to Design, Market, & Eat Your Own. -

Startup 378

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Coach 378

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Many of our job postings for Engineering positions describe the company as a place “where the word ‘millions’ is used frequently and in many contexts&#. SaaS 101: 7 Simple Lessons From Inside HubSpot - OnStartups , July 19, 2010 It’s been a little over 4 years since I officially launched my internet marketing software company , HubSpot.

Startup 217

Startup Venture Capital Blogging Software Review 217