SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I promised I would write this post with some thoughts and ideas on the topic. "I'm looking for a partner / cofounder who can not only head the technical aspects and build a working model of the site, but someone with the connections to put a great development team together when we need it. Get to know the developers.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 9, 2018

After my board meeting I had to do an interview with a CFO candidate that one of my portfolio companies asked me to speak with. I then had to review a nefarious IP lawsuit filed against another company and help the CEO figure out whether we should just pay it or join forces with the other companies named and fight it.

Software Review 381

Software Review Startup Email Conference 381

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

The first check I wrote was just over 10 years ago into a company called Invoca who just announced a new $56 million in funding led by Scott Hilleboe at HIG Growth Partners. Ownership Matters At Upfront we focus our energy on fewer companies where we take meaningful ownership and we continue to invest throughout the lifecycle of the company.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 11, 2015

As a creative director at a software development company, I am always looking for ways to speed up our design and development process and to include as many people and teams working on the project. These teams are usually: business, design, frontend, development, and quality assurance. Sitemap & Wire-Framing.

Software Development 40

Software Development Develop Development Software 40

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? Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g.,

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. But issues do arise as your company grows. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

Startup 308

Startup CTO Coach Technical Review CTO Hire 308

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

The mistake entrepreneurs make is either writing a lengthy email (everybody has too much email so it will get skimmed / not digested) or not having a deck which means the VC can’t quickly determine his or her fit as a potential investor. The key is WHAT you send. Compelling. Don’t send these?—?

Venture Capital 261

Venture Capital Slides Email Startup 261

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Who came in the office at 2am when the servers crashed – even on the night of the big company party. Writing a book will be fun.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

It’s true the some VCs have started writing so many checks that they resemble stock pickers but the majority of us still have less than 10 board seats at any time and tend to go pretty deep so the result is that we care deeply about where we commit our time. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

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. And, I dont like to copy and paste.

Blogging 150

Blogging CTO Coach CTO Hire Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

A lot of my time is spent helping early-stage companies get to proof points so that they can raise capital. Because of this, I've always tried to stay up-to-speed on how early-stage investors look at valuation of companies. What are they really looking for? What are they really looking for? What do you really need to prove?

Startup 198

Startup Custom Development Sales Writing 198

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I give a sneak peek at a blog post I’m writing on the topic next week. I spoke about the need of the CEO, CTO and head of Products to be in the same location. No problem to have some developers in remote locations. I’m going to make this a regular part of the show since it was really fun.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

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.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking Marketing Startup 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Growth like this, this early in a company’s lifecycle rarely happens. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. He is very pleasant when he calls and writes.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

The company also made quite an impression with its viral video --which you have to watch to appreciate--of CEO Michael Dubin extolling the virtues of the company's products, and panning overpriced, expensive razor brands. We talked with Dubin earlier about the company. What's your background, and how did the company start?

Dollar Shave Club 210

Dollar Shave Club Startup Pricing Sample 210

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days. Today I lead a small consultancy that helps advertising supported develop and scale the revenue producing sides of their businesses. I help internet companies make money.

Startup 225

Startup Los Angeles Twiistup Social Network 225

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 21, 2012

Steve Jillings has a long track record of running successful startups in Southern California, ranging from such companies as FrontBridge Technologies (sold to Microsoft in 2005 for over $200M) and Vantage Media (acquired in 2007). Telesign provides authentication services for the largest web companies in the world.

Marina Del Rey 238

Marina Del Rey Startup IP Examples 238

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

For our interview today, we have an interview with Gabe Grifoni , CEO and founder of Rufus Labs (www.getrufus.com), which has has developed an Android-based, wearable device which is aimed at use in the enterprise, warehouses, and factories. Gabe Grifoni: I had actually transitioned to the writing side, and focusing on tech.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

Tech Zulu Event

APRIL 23, 2013

The fitness professional network develops business tools that make it easier for fitness professionals to run their businesses and keep their clients engaged between training sessions. I am ( Michael Piermont ) co-founder and the Chief Executive Officer amSTATZ. Sergey Belyankin is our Chief Technology Officer.

Social Network 92

Social Network Networking Training Summary 92

Xconomy

JUNE 6, 2016

After operating in the shadows for the past 11 years, a San Diego neural technology company founded by former NASA administrator Dan Goldin is stepping into the light to introduce two commercial products intended to advance the frontier of human-machine interaction.

Artificial Inteligence 62

Artificial Inteligence San Diego CTO Hire Outsource Development 62

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

After my company was acquired by Salesforce.com I was asked to stop blogging and they took over my blog as an asset in the sale of the company. I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. Tempus Fugit.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

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." The problem is that MVP means early adoption of product and its features, maybe even some who will pay.

Metrics 264

Metrics Venture Capital News Product 264

Frank Addante

JANUARY 23, 2007

► February (1) Building and Developing an A++ Team ► 2008 (14) ► December (1) Develop a Culture Roadmap ► November (2) Green Week - Save the Environment and Your Cash Creating a Culture of Innovation: Cultural Values. Under Process, Over Deliver So, you need to develop a product? Startup 3.0: Be scrappy.

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Develop Development Product 40

Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

His main company Providence Holdings has invested in real estate and several small businesses. Mathew Brian (Chief Creative Officer) is also based in Columbus, OH, and is behind the strong branding effort of Huddlewoo. He also serves as the Chief Creative Officer for Will Zell’s Providence Holdings. Future plans?

Mentor 94

Mentor Platform Social Network Chief Technology Officer 94

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. How has the experience going from a big company to a small one? Plus, it makes it difficult from other recommendations.

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire Startup Sites Technical Review 147

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 3, 2012

These new viewing habits and technology advances are giving technologists and content producers an entirely new frontier to develop when it comes to creating transmedia and second screen (tablet or smartphone) experiences for viewers. Many companies are developing second screen technology, but few have come close to what Coincident.TV

Screening 109

Screening Content CTO Hire Platform 109

socalTECH

JUNE 18, 2009

We caught up with the firm's CEO, Gregg Champion--who formerly was Vice President of Programming and Development at Mania TV--to learn more about the company, its business, as well as its fundraising plans. That was the jumping off point for OneCubicle a little over 18 months ago, when we started writing the business plan and code.

Social Network 100

Social Network Entertainment Startup CTO Coach 100

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

And for many companies a good deal of their business is still closed over the phone–through their call centers. This is especially true for companies with expensive and complex products or services that are more consultative in nature, like insurance, financial services, home services, education and travel, etc.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. To hear about the company, we spoke with Ramit Varma , co-founder of the company. It was us, funding ourselves from credit cards, literally, to a company that is now on par with Kaplan and Princeton Review.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 5, 2009

I recently got together with Aaron Shechet and an early stage startup to discuss the direction the company might want to take. Not only do our business clients turn to us for lawsuits, but they also ask us to create efficient processes and develop their brands. We also represent a few larger companies with international issues.

Startup 150

Startup SEO Pepperdine Blogging 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 27, 2010

I wasn’t going to write about it since he had just covered the topic and echoed my point of view. If you take 2,000 of the world’s top performing companies, only 29 (1.5%) are run by women. It’s a fact, women aren’t good at running companies. Fred Wilson said as much on his blog also.

Startup 289

Startup Statistics Entrepreneur Study 289

Tech Zulu Event

JUNE 28, 2012

. “Let us come together and celebrate…” The mashup theme was reflected in the SBF programming, which included panels highlighting accelerators, VCs, startups, developers, movies, TV, music, web content, art, fashion, social good, surf & skate, and more. & #celebrity to pull off anything! To start: Hackathon.

Hollywood 67

Hollywood Technical Review Startup Rustic Canyon 67

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. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. But I don’t think so. call to arms.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. If you asked me to tell you a list of three of the best decisions in my life, I can certainly tell you that regularly writing is one of them. Why You Should Write. Why You Should Write.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

Join us for a special evening with InfoWorld’s Dave Linthicum as he delves into global enterprise software trends with some of LA’s most successful SaaS and cloud computing companies. He keynotes leading technology conferences on cloud computing, SOA, enterprise application integration, and enterprise architecture. Alex earned a B.A.

SaaS 92

SaaS Cloud Computing CIO Web 92

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. On the other hand, I meet plenty of people who complain bitterly about corporate politics—sometimes even in the companies they run.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248