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 going for a reality check on your current situation - wondering if you have a Weak Development Team or a Startup Founder Developer Gap.

CTO Coach 211

CTO Coach Startup Web Guide 211

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. Of course, you will want to figure out a bit more about the specifics of what this developer needs to know vs. can learn.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2013

I''m spending more of my time recently working with non-technical startup founders who are having challenges with their software/web/mobile development teams. 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 Coach 219

CTO Coach Develop Development Startup 219

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 28, 2010

Yesterday, I met with someone at the early stage of a startup. Just the kind of person I like to meet. :) But I was a bit surprised when he emphasized how hard it had been for them to find a web developer in Los Angeles. Web design typically refers to the process of interface design and graphic design.

Web Development 167

Web Development Los Angeles Web Develop 167

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

A large part of this conversation is what kinds of advisors startups should be looking for. A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. We both felt that most startups are not taking a very systematic approach to defining with they need in terms of advisors.

CTO Coach 241

CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

You may end up hiring these people eventually and you'll know more about them when you do. 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.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach Develop 205

SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

I recently posted about the Increase in Early-Stage Startup Activity in Los Angeles. In that post, I mentioned how one of the signals is the big increase in number of startup events and the number of attendees at those events. Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these.

Los Angeles 198

Los Angeles Southern California Angel Enterprise Forum 198

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I talk to a lot of founders of startups. My initial conversations normally focus on the core of the business, important Startup Metrics , probably marketing strategy (ex. SEO for Startups and Negative Customer Acquisition Costs ) and, of course, the product itself. Normally the product is defined as a web site.

Web 150

Web Sites Email HTML 150

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Lynda.com offers up online education courses on things like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Excel, AutoCAD, and much more. Lynda.com is unique in that it started out as a bootstrapped business operated out of the personal website (Lynda.com) of co-founder Lynda Weinman, in the not-so-technology hotbed town of Ojai.

Funding 178

Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. SEO for Startups )? Who are the customers?

Software Development 292

Software Development Develop Development Startup 292

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles. They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build. Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ?

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

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. SEO for Startups )? What are your key Startup Metrics ? Do you have a merchant account already set up?

Develop 396

Develop Development Startup SEO 396

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. SEO for Startups )? What are your key Startup Metrics ? Do you have a merchant account already set up?

Develop 384

Develop Development Startup SEO 384

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

If you’re a Web-based startup, for example, show me how many unique visitors you think you can get in the beginning, and what you’re using for an estimated conversion rate (buyers to browsers). And it’s surprising how few startup founders think in those terms. Part of those questions are around Startup Metrics.

Metrics 159

Metrics Search Engine Optimization Startup Ideas 159

socalTECH

JUNE 1, 2012

That's what Los Angeles-based MergeLocal (www.mergelocal.com) is looking to find out, by offering up points which can be converted to real cash, when users check into local businesses. What's your background, and how did you decide to start the company? Michael Wong: I was previously CTO of an agency called Breakthrough Ads.

CTO Coach 223

CTO Coach Startup Mobile Artificial Inteligence 223

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

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

I had just left Salesforce.com where I was VP, Products, after they had acquired my second startup. VC is a long-term business Some businesses are overnight successes but few of them really move immediately up and to the right. We have invested in every round and as a result our ownership has actually gone up over time.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

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. Lots of online marketing before that, but we had some great results when we were picked up by a national radio program. What keeps you up at night?

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Networking Marketing Startup 150

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 15, 2009

Steve Gilison worked as a market researcher and product manager at a startup where my company, TechEmpower , did the software / web development. Of course, I immediately gave him the whole spiel on Visible Networking and Steve was totally game to make our networking visible. What keeps you up at night? Or maybe not.

Los Angeles 179

Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

What is it about the content delivery network market which has enabled Santa Monica-based EdgeCast to go from startup to over $100M in revenues in only a few, short years? We caught up with James Segil , the firm's President, to hear the story behind that big growth at the company. We've grown really fast.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

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. And I spoke with the CTO of another great company I used to be on the board of and enlisted his support in potentially being an advisor to one company. Of course I could go on and on.

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2009

Quality of Events Of course, the bigger issue with events is finding the ones where you will have a really good opportunity to network with interesting people. In his post, he mentions the following events / event organizers, and you should visit his post for a bit more on each of them.

Southern California 243

Southern California Los Angeles Technology Council Stirrers and Shakers 243

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

On Friday, at the LA CTO Forum , I heard from a couple of CTOs having trouble finding good developers. Update from original - just saw a follow-up post by Ben Kuo - Southern California Technology Jobs Surge. Of course, a lot of people say the same thing. Depends on complexity. Sorry, I wish I could be more help.

Develop 175

Develop Development TechEmpower Southern California 175

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 31, 2011

Coming hot off the coat tail of earlier this year’s Startup Weekend LA where Zaarly launched, this LASW was nothing less than amazing and as someone put, one of the best tech events in LA they had ever been to. With the pitching energy escalating in the room, regular pitches began short after.

Los Angeles 73

Los Angeles Startup Angel Tech Coast Angels 73

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I received a great question via LinkedIn: I'm the founding engineer and working hard to launch my startup. 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. What can I do to best equip myself to step up when the need to officially fill this role arises?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

On December 2nd, 2006 I wrote the blog post published later in this post when I was CEO of startup Koral about my experiences in pitching VCs. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. This blog post ended up on Valleywag (which had much bigger presence back then). 1:20 and they turned up like clockwork.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

” But I went back to the office and talked with Stuart Lander & David Lapter and said, “no prizes for guessing which job Ethan’s going to take.” In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. I asked him if he would consider raising $3m in stead and we would put up most of the funds.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

SoCal CTO

JUNE 14, 2008

A very interesting topic, especially for those of us involved in developing for start-ups. At the CTO Group that I organize in Santa Monica, we've had lots of discussions around this. The basic conclusion was that it was a bit premature if you were talking about a serious, funded start-up. Visual Basic add-ons.

Platform 150

Platform EC2 Java S3 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 16, 2010

This question came up last week. I am hearing from my project management team a bit of distrust in the technical capacity of our web development team. 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.

Develop 179

Develop Development Course Software Development 179

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

From there, I became the first non-founder employee at an e-commerce startup called BITSource, which was the first electronic software distributor delivering electronic volume software licenses to corporations. Earlier this year I founded a new startup called KlickFu. What’s keeping you up at night? What are you working on now?

Product 150

Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

By far the most popular post on this blog is 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. While I’ve updated it a few times, it continues to get at important questions that startup founders need to be asking. It was originally written in 2011 and has had amazing staying power. What do they do? Is SEO important?

Startup 150

Startup SEO CTO Coach Web 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. but: Something is Still Missing.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. I’ll have to relocate.

Startup 175

Startup Venture Capital Slides Blogging 175

Frank Addante

MAY 15, 2006

► August (1) Stay Positive ► July (2) Go Fast, but Don’t Hurry The DNA of an A++ Team ► June (1) Setting up Shop - Picking an Office Space ► May (3) Startup 6.0 - the Rubicon Project: Internet Advert. No, it’ Startup 2.0: Startup 1.0: “The Bug Bite&# - The Internet Needs.

Advertising 40

Advertising Startup Chief Technology Officer Technical Review 40

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 12, 2010

You folks are just that awesome that we try and hook our readers up whenever we can so you are Welcome! Eric Ries is the author of the blog Startup Lessons Learned and the lean startup methodology. He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He is a frequent public speaker.

Twiistup 40

Twiistup Riot Games UCLA Media 40

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Chris Dixon , September 12, 2010 My most useful career experience was about eight years ago when I was trying to break into the world of VC-backed startups. Why You Should Write. and chartbeat.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Alon Schwartz

JANUARY 18, 2009

Last night Jason Nazar, my partner and CEO of Docstoc hosted a session on 10 mistakes people make when starting a business. I’m also Jason’s partner at Docstoc which brings its own challenges, being a web startup at a glooming economy. When Jason and I started we did not talk about equity split for a long time.

Startup 58

Startup Equity Tips Commerce 58