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Hiring Developers Before Product/Market Fit?

SoCal CTO

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. In many cases, during my Free Startup CTO Consulting Session with them, we discuss where they are in in the process. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. Far from it.

CTO Hire 205
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Announcing a Deal I’ve Wanted to Talk About for a Year

Both Sides of the Table

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. We generally have a policy to only fund entrepreneurs once the first version of a product has shipped or it near to shipping. So I asked Ethan to build his product first and then we would fund. The company was called Red Beacon. He was seeking $500k.

CTO Coach 359
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A Different Kind of Incubator - The Hive

SoCal CTO

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 A Different Kind of Incubator - The Hive I recently met with The Hive a new incubator in Orange County. What I really liked in my conversations with The Hive is that they are willing to work with and fund ventures that would never get VC dollars.

Incubator 150
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Advice for CTO Founders: Don't Let Business Kill the Business

SoCal Delicious

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. I have met dozens of brilliant technologists with fantastic ideas, ideas requiring nurturing, mentoring and support. Vaultive « Are Derivatives the Real Problem?

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The Power of Getting the Band Back Together

Both Sides of the Table

Our founder, Yves Sisteron, was my mentor and board member at my first startup. Neither is very strategic nor in the best interest of either set of customers that VCs have (portfolio companies & LPs). “Getting the band back together” doesn’t stop for me with just our fund. Writing a book will be fun.

CTO Hire 320
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Innovation and Geography

SoCal CTO

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. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.

CTO Coach 150
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Venture Capital is About Human Capital

Both Sides of the Table

Most VCs did well academically and had enough career success that a venture firm was willing to give them an investment role or they were able to raise their own fund. Invoca has grown its enterprise customer base 550% in the past three years including major customers like Microsoft, Allstate and SunTrust.