Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps.

Acquisition 88

Acquisition CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 88

SoCal Delicious

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

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. So my advice to CTO / Founders? Vaultive « Are Derivatives the Real Problem?

CTO Coach 28

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Mentor 28

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. Who will do that?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps.

CTO Hire 91

CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development Resource 91

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

In practice it can be a fine line between sparring partner / coach and stepping over the line to brute-force persuasion. The way we dealt with this issue is that we took each senior exec in the company (including the CFO and the CTO) and assigned them to important accounts. The organization gets used to it and adjusts.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

socalTECH

JANUARY 25, 2016

I started as a teenager, and I did babysitting, life guarding, and swim coaching. My co-founder Kasey� and I started a boutique agency at the end of our time in college, which was in Santa Barbara. So, we moved forward from there, and organically grew, creating a boutique agency. Are your sitters W2 or contract employees?

Demand 100

Demand CTO Coach Screening CTO Hire 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 7, 2013

Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios. This followed an investment late last year by Time Warner in the company in a round totaling $36 million , led by Rachel Lam , head of their investment group. And he has truly been a pleasure to work with.

Media 320

Media CTO Coach CTO Hire Los Angeles 320

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. 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. Finally, I think it’s worth meeting “mentors.”

Networking 366

Networking Startup CTO Coach Email 366

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. Yes, I know it’s my job as the CEO to be the coach for people and that’s fine. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

socalTECH

JUNE 9, 2014

The third piece of our business, is we''ve developed the infrastructure, technology, and methodology to discover content, and put it into our own, salesforce like system, which allows our researchers to pick out videos, track down the content creators, and do all of the contracting through the system. That''s how each of those pieces evolved.

Media 235

Media Content Startup IP 235

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 13, 2015

We just recently brought in a CFO, a CTO, and also brought our technology team in house, so we are positioned to move our product forward, and grow and hire sales people in all of these different cities. One of them is serving as an advisor, and the other will be joining our board.

Networking 100

Networking CTO Hire CTO Coach Mobile 100

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million. Rob is one of the most driven and successful CEOs I work with. Rob is driven to learn.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

We hired the ex-CTO of Sears, and other senior executives out of Disney in software. So, I've been hiring people and creating an organization around that. I'm now looking at hiring some traditional analysts and infrastructure employees, to facilitate a much bigger fund than the $20M we have in the near term.

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

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. is also hiring.

Los Angeles 73

Los Angeles Startup Angel Tech Coast Angels 73

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. Often board members give entrepreneurs two bits of advice regarding scale: Get a mentor. m the f%*kin’ boss.”. Has convertible debt won?

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

Running a new business starts with building a solid and credible business plan, working the investor funding process, and building an organization from nothing, with minimal resources. Sacrifice and time commitment. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO? Domain expertise and connections.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Running a new business starts with building a solid and credible business plan, working the investor funding process, and building an organization from nothing, with minimal resources. Sacrifice and time commitment. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO? Domain expertise and connections.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91