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Customer Validation - 33 Great Articles

SoCal CTO

Beware of Mentors. I’m going to take that thought out into the field and validate it with my customers." I’ve spoken to dozens of customers, I have a validated customer persona, built an MVP to test key behavioral hypotheses, and the data doesn’t back what you’re saying." Customer Validation 101.

Customer 227
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Hiring Developers Before Product/Market Fit?

SoCal CTO

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. In many cases, during my Free Startup CTO Consulting Session with them, we discuss where they are in in the process. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. Far from it.

CTO Hire 205
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Announcing a Deal I’ve Wanted to Talk About for a Year

Both Sides of the Table

I acted as the occasional mentor, advisor and coach to Ethan. And because I wanted Ethan to be able to attract a great team, build & iterate a product, test it with initial customers and refine his strategy before having to take the wrappers off of his company. The company was called Red Beacon. So there you have it.

CTO Coach 359
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Document Your MVP for a Developer

SoCal CTO

I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs? This should be an iterative process with advisors and customers providing feedback on the product. Founder : Ummm. what do you mean? Don't stress over format.

Develop 354
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10 Attributes Of The Perfect Partner For Your Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Conflicting visions won’t work. Believe in similar values and goals.

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Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP

SoCal CTO

Have you conducted Problem, Solution and Feature Interviews with customers? Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ? See Investors, MVPs and Evidence of Traction. Have you Documented Your MVP for Your Developer s? Don't be fooled by a Common Misunderstanding in Agile Software Development.

CTO Coach 219
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People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip but not Skip

Both Sides of the Table

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. By going on sales calls you pick up directly the feedback of what customers want and also what they’re telling you about competition. Skipping is insidious.

Startup 308