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. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be.

Fractional CTO 225

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach 225

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2021

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Building through internal development, or organic growth, makes the most sense when you have a core set of skilled internal resources. Add basic partner contracts or alliances.

Organization 132

Organization CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 132

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

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. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term. And I try my best to point them to resources that can help them longer term.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

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

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 10, 2012

It was like having a bunch of mini- Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions all in one room. Structure development contracts appropriately or directing the in-house team appropriately. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm doing as a Part-Time CTO or Technical Advisor for startups.

Technical Advisors 332

Technical Advisors CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 332

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

MARCH 2, 2015

As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire CTO Coach Los Angeles Angel 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners was nice enough to compile some data on CTO Equity and Compensation at Venture Backed Companies for the LA CTO Forum and present last year. Todd is a go to resource for people looking for talent in startups. CTO Founders in India, have a very low equity stake.

CTO Hire 273

CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Company 273

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well. Here's an example of that kind of email.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." the better the startup will be. n = (1.2 - 1)/1.2 =.167. and we have 11.1%

Equity 391

Equity CTO Hire Startup Examples 391

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Startup 174

Startup Equity Patents CTO Hire 174

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

One of the vivid memories I have from being a startup CEO is the feeling that most people in your company have a look in their eyes that like they can do your job as well as you. But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. You hire great people. Startup life.

Entrepreneur 385

Entrepreneur CTO Hire Startup Sales 385

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Building through internal development, or organic growth, makes the most sense when you have a core set of skilled internal resources. Add basic partner contracts or alliances.

Acquisition 88

Acquisition CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 88

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a cofounder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 99

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 99

socalTECH

MAY 29, 2018

Marina Del Rey-based startup Guardian Circle , the developer of a social-based system and app that helps people summon help from their friends, said last week that it has added futurist Peter Diamandis as an advisor as part of a "token sale" the company is running. International Space University, and Planetary Resources.

CTO Coach 100

CTO Coach Marina Del Rey CTO Hire Mahalo 100

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Building through internal development, or organic growth, makes the most sense when you have a core set of skilled internal resources. Add basic partner contracts or alliances.

CTO Hire 91

CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development Resource 91

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 211

Startup IP Ideas Patents 211

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Startups are hard. You’ve heard that a million times. The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. You hire people who look good on paper.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

In the era of Skype, web conferencing tools and collaboration software conventional wisdom says that distributed startup teams can be just as effective as those that are in person. Or more precisely the people espousing the benefits of distributed startups teams are often distributed and therefore self rationalizing it. Been there.

Technical Advisors 335

Technical Advisors Outsource Development Offshore Startup 335

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2011

This site aggregates and filters content from thought leaders who talk about topics such as Marketing , Sales , Design , Revenue , Hiring , Social Media , Business Models , Metrics , PR , Venture Capital , Angel Investors , Bootstrapping , Incubators , Agile and many others. Click around on the various topics to find some amazing resources.

Content 175

Content Startup Social Media IP 175

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. 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.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. Before I started my first company in 1999 I worked for Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). So I’ve always had this in mind with me at startups. Ryan was the most talented technologist we had hired at BuildOnline. The lead architect was blocking new ideas.

CTO Hire 322

CTO Hire Startup Resource Entrepreneur 322

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 23, 2017

When you run a startup you’re always on borrowed time. I’ve never met a founder who wasn’t acutely aware of his or her ticking time bomb and the sense that failure and humiliation is a real possibility. It’s why so few can really start a business from scratch.

Funding 238

Funding Venture Capital Startup Course 238

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. Chief Human Resources Officer (VP Personnel).

Startup 97

Startup Invest CTO Hire Cloud Computing 97

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 62

Equity Startup Patents CTO Hire 62

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. is all about?

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire Startup Sites Technical Review 147

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Now comes the reality check.

Equity 95

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 95

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. We woke up and saw the same pattern, over-and-over. We had to find other, more diverse ways to allocate our resources and grow businesses. Photo: Dave Fink on left, Jonathan Neddenriep on right.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Marketing 100

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. 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.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. Chief Human Resources Officer (VP Personnel).

Startup 90

Startup CTO Hire Cloud Computing CIO 90

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. Chief Human Resources Officer (VP Personnel).

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Funding Cloud Computing CIO 100

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 will soon announce a few fundings (not yet closed, sorry) and I’m beginning to help them think about how to ramp up their engineering teams. But they must all start somewhere. Whom to Meet? .”

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. The default answer, to keep peace in the family, is to split everything equally, but that’s a terrible answer, since now no one is in control, and startups need a clear leader. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Equity 104

Equity Patents Startup CTO Hire 104

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

I’m looking to turn dots into lines over time. I’m inspired by the enthusiasm of the young, emerging startup ecosystem that is here. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0 And I think about the “Seattle issue&# as a metaphor for startups and business in general.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2010

Robin's latest startup is Internships.com (www.internships.com), an online site focused on aggregating internship opportunities and providing resources to potential interns. We spoke to Robin about the new startup, his executive team, as well as his angel investing activity here. How did you decide to start Internships.com?

Startup 223

Startup Content Sites CTO Coach 223