article thumbnail

Here is How to Make Sense of Conflicting Startup Advice

Both Sides of the Table

Many startups now go through accelerators and have mentors passing through each day with advice – usually it’s conflicting. There are bootcamps, startup classes, video interviews – the sources are now endless. Because I’ve asked more than 100 VCs similar questions I start to notice patterns in thinking.

Startup 407
article thumbnail

People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip but not Skip

Both Sides of the Table

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact). You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

Startup 308
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Making Sure You Are Ready to Begin Building Your MVP

SoCal CTO

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. What's going to go wrong?

CTO Coach 219
article thumbnail

Be Careful About Being a Meddling Startup CEO

Both Sides of the Table

Fred Wilson also wrote on a similar topic in his usual more succinct manner , with a great quote being: “One thing I know for sure is that those who advise and invest in startups cannot and should not meddle in the day to day decision making. It’s harmful and hurtful to the startup and those that lead it. ” PR.

Startup 150
article thumbnail

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. It would be great to get notes and summaries from these.

Develop 354
article thumbnail

Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy

Both Sides of the Table

If you want to understand my thesis behind Maker you can read this article that outlines the trend , but in summary: People watch 5.3 He initially started by becoming an investor in the company along with many of the good & great of our industry including Shari Redstone, Elisabeth Murdoch, Jon Miller & Robert Downey, Jr.

Media 320