SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

If you do not break it down into small pieces, its hard to make progress with part-time resources, freelancers, etc. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers Technology Roles in Startups Want to Know the Difference Between a CTO and a VP Engineering? Third party products are used appropriately.

Technical Review

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

" Typically, this requires quite a bit more information for me to be able to respond and provide real help. Your technical advisor can likely help. The bad news is that Finding Developers is Tough Here in Los Angeles and even people willing to pay have a hard time finding Web Development in Los Angeles. Go to user groups.

CTO Hire

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

This is not only sad but incredibly frustrating, because it is so easy to see how a great technology can be developed and commercialized if only - if only the CTO hadn't been impulsive and insecure and brought on a business partner too early in the game. … And it’s not just inexperienced CTOs. Lack of confidence? Camaraderie?

CTO Hire

SoCal CTO

MARCH 2, 2015

As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO. My general answer is “no.”

CTO Hire

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

Here’s the other aspect that both Tony and I preach: get help. You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. Getting someone who’s fully employed somewhere else to work with you on a limited basis to help close the gap is hugely important for the non-technical founder.

CTO Coach

SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

And there are all sorts of different kinds of technical people who might help with getting that product to happen. There are a bunch of questions in Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything and in Startup CTO or Developer. This is somewhat the heart of what a CTO does. It’s a painful situation.

CTO Hire

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

I just need you for a few hours to help me move this weekend.” I.e., they need a developer more than they need a CTO. I just had a fellow CTO ask me about a particular technical design problem and several directions they could go and ask for my thoughts on the tradeoffs for those different choices.

Develop

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. Maybe it helps that I love controversy and pushing the boundaries so people felt it was OK for them to do it as well. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers? he asked.

Entrepreneur

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#. But it will not help your business grow faster. Dilute your cash, equity or both. But they aren’t the COO. and my favorite].

Startup

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

Understanding where your VC partner sits in their respective fund and where their fund is in the cycle of its investment lifecycle will help you understand your VCs behavior. In his spare time he raised nearly $30 million. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. What Rob wrote in his post is right.

Tips

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

Even if you are looking in all the right places, it helps to know what you are looking for. The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. No historical baggage. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

Content delivery networks are there to help improve the performance, and serve up that content more intelligently to devices, to thd network, and to users, as they consume the Internet. The Internet doesn't work right, and is broken, and without a CDN, you can't do what you need to do if you're the CTO of a large website.

CTO Hire

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference. There’s you and your killer CTO co-founder. Who’s going to help you with improving your marketing / positioning to become a clear platform category leader like Twilio? No Dave S. =

Venture Capital

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. The Right Way to Lay People Off - Ben's Blog , September 21, 2010 “I’m tryin’ to right my wrongs, But it’s funny them same wrongs helped me write this song”. Kanye West. Let's recap. It’s great advice.

Startup

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

I was hired to head up strategy, marketing development, and product management. I helped to grow that to a major player in ecommerce and online advertising, which is used to find and buy chips use in your iPhone, in your computer, and everything else today. To give you an overview, there are something like 6,000 equities in the U.S.

Orange County

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2014

What that means, in more simple terms, is we''re able to help doctors with scheduling, medical billing, managing health records electronically, with a patient portal, and analytics--really a one stop shop for running their entire practice. We''ve raised around $72 million now in equity capital. Back to Kareo--what''s next for you?

Startup

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

“The reason I am doing this is because this is the way I can have the biggest impact on helping entrepreneurship become more successful.”. This offline event was successful in helping Kaviani find his own cofounder, Culin Tate, and a new venture. I think that comes through in how we spend our time and in our actions,” said Kaviani.

Entrepreneur

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. thought it would be helpful to put some of my thoughts into a blog post and hopefully spur some conversation in the comments and over email.

Startup

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2010

They just can't reach into the class of freshmen, sophomores, or juniors to help companies get better candidates. We've also hired a tremendous set of experience career counselors, who have had colorful or substantial careers, to supply services and products to our students. What content are they licensing? Bruce Worman, is our CFO.

Startup

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Another common “failure to start” situation I see is one where the “idea person” insists that the idea is 90% of the value (and 90% of the equity). Sacrifice and time commitment.

Equity

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

One of the first tough decisions that startup founders have to make is how to allocate or split the equity among co-founders. Another common “failure to start” situation I see is one where the “idea person” insists that the idea is 90% of the value (and 90% of the equity). Sacrifice and time commitment.

Startup