SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. So, I wanted to use this post to make it official - we are offering free startup CTO consulting sessions. See Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers for more on this.

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. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. So, I wanted to use this post to make it official - we are offering free startup CTO consulting sessions. See Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers for more on this.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. For example, if you hover over the big circle in California you can see that there were 303 responses for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Equity 198

Equity Startup Examples Course 198

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. For example, if you hover over the big circle in California you can see that there were 303 responses for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Equity 175

Equity Startup Examples Course 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. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs. Of course, that doesn’t help here. So … I have probably more questions than answers.

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 167

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are trying to determine what technologies might apply that you should be evaluating. Of course, when you go to have this conversation be prepared.

CTO Coach 211

CTO Coach Startup Web Guide 211

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. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs. Of course, that doesn’t help here. So … I have probably more questions than answers.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

Based on my posts Startup CTO or Developer and Acting CTO , Chris O’Meara wrote an interesting post Startup CTO: Could It Work? If you think that's person you need, the question becomes "what else do you expect a CTO to contribute?" " Of course, that’s a rare combination. I love blog conversations.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Startup Guide Examples 150

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

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've talked about that in lots of other posts, so you can visit some of these to help determine what you specifically need: Startup CTO or Developer Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Key ingredients in the equation are: How complex is the system? Ask them about your concept.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Lynda.com offers up online education courses on things like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Excel, AutoCAD, and much more. Meritech Capital also participated in the funding. The business saw a dramatic growth when--due to the downturn of the dot com crash--the company started to post its video online.

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Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? eHarmongy) as an acting CTO. Of course, thats probably even more true in Silicon Valley. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

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. In many cases, during my Free Startup CTO Consulting Session with them, we discuss where they are in in the process.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach Develop 205

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2013

These are often the same things that cause a founder to reach out to me about helping their CTO, VP Engineering, tech team, off-shore development, etc. CTO Knowledge and Skill I personally believe that the best CTOs will have a technical/developer background. So what do you do? Everything takes a long time to build.

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Develop Development Startup 219

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

On Friday, at the LA CTO Forum , I heard from a couple of CTOs having trouble finding good developers. And it’s not just me, Ben Kuo just posted - Good news for developers (and jobs) We’ve been talking with a lot (and I mean a LOT) of people who are looking for developers in Southern California (Los Angeles and beyond).

Develop 175

Develop Development TechEmpower Southern California 175

SoCal CTO

APRIL 25, 2017

We have been reading about the LA CTO Forum and we thought it would be a great place to find him/her. I've written before about having an Initial Conversation with a Potential CTO. What have you done so far? And please include LinkedIn URLs so that I can easily find your background. Why is this a great startup?

Email 150

Email Startup Develop Development 150

SoCal CTO

JUNE 13, 2011

We had an interesting presentation at the LA CTO Forum by the CTO of a startup who chose Groovy / Grails as the framework for their startup. t prompted a good discussion around how CTOs go about choosing the programming language and framework for their startup. Of course, I'm not sure that anyone chooses Java alone.

Framework 330

Framework Startup Java PHP 330

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. For me, if I can help you within a couple hours Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions , I’m happy to do that and I don’t expect compensation or equity for that. Here’s the other aspect that both Tony and I preach: get help.

CTO Coach 241

CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

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. Our co-founder and CTO, Josh Fester and I met each other online and within a month he moved from St Louis to LA. Back then, it was just him following his dream.

SoCal 104

SoCal Southern California Startup Platform 104

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 28, 2010

There certainly are a lot of Networking Events in Los Angeles and Southern California that you can use. The LA CTO Forum , which I help organize, has more than 100 Software/Web CTOs from all sorts of companies. But he felt that it was rather random whether he was meeting the right folks.

Web Development 167

Web Development Los Angeles Web Develop 167

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Of course, to be able to use this kind of formula, you will need to be able to determine how much impact the person will have and figure out a valuation. Of course, all of that assumes that the early employee does make an impact. Suppose further that he's going to cost $60k a year in salary and overhead, x 1.5 = $90k total.

Equity 391

Equity CTO Hire Startup Examples 391

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Of course, I immediately gave him the whole spiel on Visible Networking and Steve was totally game to make our networking visible. I have about 11 years in the technology sector including roles doing market research, sales and product development. Of course, it's probably harder to find these folks. Wow, great questions.

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Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

Correct your course quickly. Don't be fooled by a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development. While You Are Building Your MVP Look for the following Symptoms of a Weak Development Team. And when you have Poor Software Developers - Pull the Plug Early. Learn how to test and possibly use testing and load tools.

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. And don’t confuse having a CTO with getting an Technology Advisor.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Technical Review Technology CTO Hire 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

In industry this is known as “yield management” and of course it needs to exist. Ethan recruited a great team of people to help build this proposition including Lisa Robinson running marketing and Rahul Thathoo as CTO who have been working tirelessly for the past year. It’s more convenient for both sides.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I seem to encounter a lot of people who want to attach a CTO label to me as I'm the only programmer on the founding team of three. While I do fill that role at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to refer to myself as a CTO as we still haven't launched a product, acquired a single user, or turned or a penny in profit.

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

This aligns with understanding the the core business model: Get Users (= Acquisition, Referral) Drive Usage (= Activation, Retention) Make Money (= Monetize) (and Lifetime Value is a good one) Of course, that’s a big part of what the investor wants as well. And you definitely should have ideas around important proof points for the business.

Metrics 159

Metrics Search Engine Optimization Startup Ideas 159

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 14, 2009

Cliff Allen is someone I've known for quite a few years and he's a go to person for me when I'm thinking about issues around marketing, sales, technology, startups and networking. A few years ago, my CTO spotted a need that local groups and organizations have in handling RSVPs and registrations for meetings and events. Hey, radio.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking Marketing Startup 150

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

I am a product guy so my bias is always to focus on building a great product first. Of course, you should monitor social media such as Twitter, the social news sites, Facebook, etc. What networking events in Los Angeles or Southern California do you go to? Tell Rod about the LA CTO Forum.

Product 150

Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Of course, one of the best ideas around this is to have Negative Customer Acquisition Costs. Do I Need a Co-Founder: The 90/50 Rule of Startup Founders - FairSoftware's Blog , February 1, 2010 Another post that relates to my recent post on CTO Founders and Cofounders. Great stuff. " The emotions around sunk costs run deep.

Pricing 150

Pricing Acquisition Customer Custom 150

Eric Greenspan

NOVEMBER 8, 2009

Of course she asked me, I’m the CEO of a leading computer services company. I then sent an email to my CTO Jeremy Anticouni asking him if www.poogling.com was available. I was a little wary as Jacob has never been in any trouble. Anyhow, long story short, I responded with, “lol, he Googled poo…he was poogling?&#

Google 115

Google .Net Santa Barbara Email 115

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

We have our own small seed fund, which we trigger to fund that company and hire a team, a CEO and a CTO. Of course, those acquisition opportunities don't always come up at the right time, so we're also building some very strategic, long terms plays, so that if we need to get more capital, we can do that.

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Of course, it's way more complex than just these questions. I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Develop 396

Develop Development Startup SEO 396

SoCal CTO

MARCH 16, 2010

When we interview potential developers, it’s amazing to me how many can’t answer questions that every student in a sophomore level computer science course should be able to answer. And, of course, if you have the Founder Developer Gap, then you might want to consider getting help. Also, there are a lot of C players out there.

Develop 179

Develop Development Course Software Development 179

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Of course, it's way more complex than just these questions. I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. But I've often been very surprised by one aspect of these conversations.

Develop 384

Develop Development Startup SEO 384

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Of course, there's a lot more on any kind of application like this to really get things setup, but Branchout has done a good job making that happen incrementally. And, of course, that person gets notified and you can tweet or post your endorsement as well. They've also done a nice job of importing LinkedIn background information.

Examples 331

Examples Startup Course Networking 331

SoCal CTO

JUNE 15, 2011

Of course, there's a lot more on any kind of application like this to really get things setup, but Branchout has done a good job making that happen incrementally. And, of course, that person gets notified and you can tweet or post your endorsement as well. They've also done a nice job of importing LinkedIn background information.

Examples 323

Examples Startup Course Networking 323