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. Don’t put yourself in this situation. What type of shares?

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CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 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.

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CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity Develop 241

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.

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CTO Hire Outsource Development CTO Coach Develop 205

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 7, 2009

SEO for Startups and Negative Customer Acquisition Costs ) and, of course, the product itself. Normally the product is defined as a web site. Most founders are fairly passionate about the features and functions of the web site, iPhone application, Facebook application, or whatever web application represents the product.

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Web Sites Email HTML 150

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. Technical Leader.

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CTO Coach Develop Development Startup 219

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? The good news is that likely is not what they want.

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CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2013

Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ? Correct your course quickly. Have you looked through Things You May Have Forgot in Your MVP and provided answers to these? Don't be fooled by a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development.

CTO Coach 219

CTO Coach Metrics Framework Software Development 219

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Lynda.com offers up online education courses on things like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Microsoft Excel, AutoCAD, and much more. Robison reports that the company now has over 400 employees, spread across seven building in a Carpinteria campus, in addition to a web development branch in Calabasas, and sales offices in the UK and Australia.

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Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. 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.

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CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

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.

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CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

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.

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Southern California Los Angeles Technology Council Stirrers and Shakers 243

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 will be a consistent picture provided both to the team (CTO, COO) and to investors. Give me granularity.

Metrics 159

Metrics Search Engine Optimization Startup Ideas 159

socalTECH

JUNE 1, 2012

Michael Wong: I was previously CTO of an agency called Breakthrough Ads. My cofounder, Steven Elliott, was CTO of a company doing artificial intelligence and automated chat technology. We had worked together for six years before starting MergeLocal, which came about on the golf course.

CTO Coach 223

CTO Coach Startup Mobile Artificial Inteligence 223

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

On Friday, at the LA CTO Forum , I heard from a couple of CTOs having trouble finding good developers. Of course, a lot of people say the same thing. In Los Angeles Web Developer , I talked about the issues with finding developers in Los Angeles based the experience that one startup founder had. Depends on complexity.

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Develop Development TechEmpower Southern California 175

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.

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CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

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. Of course, it's probably harder to find these folks.

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Los Angeles Product Angel Startup 179

SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these. So, you may also want to go look at: Los Angeles Startup Events Here are some of the events and meetups that I've spoken at, attended or at least interest me. So, if you happen to read this and want to meet me, just reach out directly.

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Los Angeles Southern California Angel Enterprise Forum 198

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Of course everything could be replicated if a massive juggernaut like Amazon or Google wanted to pour all of their resources into it but I’m talking about technology that is hard to replicate, takes years of know-how and once adopted is significantly valuable. Of course the media doesn’t do nuance well so this is an emotional topic.

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Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

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. Accounting?

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CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

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

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. Beyond simple web analytics, what is needed? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. Administer users?

Develop 396

Develop Development Startup SEO 396

SoCal CTO

MARCH 16, 2010

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. This question came up last week.

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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. Beyond simple web analytics, what is needed? I tend to ask a lot of questions, challenge aspects, make suggestions. Administer users?

Develop 384

Develop Development Startup SEO 384

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

Of course, we’ll also discuss the details of the product itself. What's the User Interface Beyond the Web Site ? Of course, that’s the really fun, interesting, challenging work. Are there any specific hard dates or important time sensitive opportunities? What do you see as some of the bigger risks / challenges?

Software Development 292

Software Development Develop Development Startup 292

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

In industry this is known as “yield management” and of course it needs to exist. And in a world where we increasingly log in to personal web time at late hours or on our mobile phones that’s no longer good enough. It’s more convenient for both sides.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 23, 2014

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. The are at the center of a web and even being two degrees away from a super maven can help you greatly. Roger Ehrenberg. Fred Wilson. Nihal Mehta.

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Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Eric Greenspan

NOVEMBER 8, 2009

Of course she asked me, I’m the CEO of a leading computer services company. We are huge proponents of the Internet, so the last thing we wanted to do was scare them and stop their kids from benefiting from using the Web. We are not therapists, but we know technology so we did the best we could.

Google 115

Google .Net Santa Barbara Email 115

SoCal CTO

JUNE 14, 2008

At the CTO Group that I organize in Santa Monica, we've had lots of discussions around this. Mentions - Marc Andreessen's - The three kinds of platforms you meet on the Internet A Level 1 platform's apps run elsewhere, and call into the platform via a web services API to draw on data and services -- this is how Flickr does it.

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

Fascinating that you are going against the trend of trying to make everything a web application. Of course, you should monitor social media such as Twitter, the social news sites, Facebook, etc. Tell Rod about the LA CTO Forum. I'll be interested to see what it turns into. Lou is a friend and colleague from UCLA Anderson.

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Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

Tech Zulu Event

AUGUST 31, 2011

We also had awesome group of mentors that included: David Waxman (Co-founder of PeoplePC, Spot Runner and Firefly Network), Paige Craig (CEO of BetterWorks ), Josh MacAdam (Co-founder/CTO at Ming.ly If Avesta sees someone drinking Coloft coffee (organic of course), he quickly asks if they’ve sold anything.

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Los Angeles Startup Angel Tech Coast Angels 73

Tech Zulu Event

JANUARY 12, 2010

He previously co-founded and served as Chief Technology Officer of IMVU. He is principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning New Media agency in Silicon Valley, and has led interactive and social programs for Fortune 500 companies, notable celebrities, and Web 2.0 He is a frequent public speaker. Alex Quilici. gigaom.com.

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Twiistup Riot Games UCLA Media 40

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 10, 2016

I find myself sending it to startup founders all the time – maybe just slightly less than Free Startup CTO Consulting. Luckily, some of the folks at TechEmpower just posted Think about Performance Before Building a Web Application. Consider two different types of systems: eCommerce or Content web site. Different use cases?

Startup 150

Startup SEO CTO Coach Web 150

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. Dare I steer off the course from the tried-and-true PowerPoint ritual? Web service architecture that provides a content management platform for the Internet. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. Page 2: What’s unique about Koral.

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Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Alon Schwartz

JANUARY 18, 2009

I’m also Jason’s partner at Docstoc which brings its own challenges, being a web startup at a glooming economy. If you’re the CEO and you’re looking for a partner CTO (sound familiar) you’re not just checking him out, he is checking you as well. I’m the Secretary of Commerce where my wife is, of course, the Secretary of Treasury.

Startup 58

Startup Equity Tips Commerce 58

Alon Schwartz

JANUARY 18, 2009

I’m also Jason’s partner at Docstoc which brings its own challenges, being a web startup at a glooming economy. If you’re the CEO and you’re looking for a partner CTO (sound familiar) you’re not just checking him out, he is checking you as well. I’m the Secretary of Commerce where my wife is, of course, the Secretary of Treasury.

Startup 56

Startup Equity Tips Commerce 56

Alon Schwartz

JANUARY 18, 2009

I’m also Jason’s partner at Docstoc which brings its own challenges, being a web startup at a glooming economy. If you’re the CEO and you’re looking for a partner CTO (sound familiar) you’re not just checking him out, he is checking you as well. I’m the Secretary of Commerce where my wife is, of course, the Secretary of Treasury.

Startup 40

Startup Equity Tips Commerce 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. But the other piece of the argument is, of course, an argument for why your company should build open source - why it should develop its technology in a community-driven, open sourced way. It’s simple.

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Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191