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. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 22, 2021

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps. External scanning for resources.

Organization 132

Organization CTO Hire Startup Outsource Development 132

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. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 150

socalTECH

JANUARY 2, 2014

It''s never a great time: you figure out you have a legal problem, and need to find a lawyer. But, how do you start? The old way was difficult, time consuming, and often expensive; referrals, calling up lawyers, going through initial consultations. What''s LawKick about? That happens in just a five minute process.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've recently received several emails from people looking for a technical cofounder for their startup. " 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. You should definitely hit up the Startup Weekend events as well.

CTO Hire 211

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." the better the startup will be. n = (1.2 - 1)/1.2 =.167.

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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. … Mark Suster has similar advice in Hiring at a Startup? Camaraderie?

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2013

In what is a fairly unusual move, last week, Tradesparq (www.tradesparq.com), a Chinese startup in the area of B2B trade information, said it was planning on setting up its operations here in Southern California, as part of an expansion and scaling of the company. Michael Kleist: We started in 2010. What is Tradesparq?

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Startups are hard. You’ve heard that a million times. The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. You hire people who look good on paper.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps. External scanning for resources.

Acquisition 88

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. “The growth of a successful startup usually has three phases: There’s an initial period of slow or no growth while the startup tries to figure out what it’s doing. So I like that bit, too.

Startup 390

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

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. Startup Lessons'

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socalTECH

APRIL 24, 2019

Anyone who hires anyone, or has ever looked for a jobs knows how important a resume is. The startup has developed a system which uses information from online forums, source code sharing, technical communities, and the like to help find and rank technical talent. How did you end up starting the company?

Sites 240

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. In bringing up the issue I wasn’t “hating on COOs&# – I’m just challenging you to think about whether your CEO + COO structure really provides the right amount of clarity in your organization. I find them strange.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 211

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SoCal Tech Calendar

JUNE 13, 2016

A new, mobile app startup, Exactly --which is about to launch a mobile messaging and networking app aimed at Millenials--said it has set up shop in Silicon Beach, backed by $4.6M in funding. The company said the expansion comes due to the hiring of a new CEO, SoCal startup vet Jay Goss, to lead the company.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps. External scanning for resources.

CTO Hire 91

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? Especially if the idea could be whipped-up by a few 24-year olds in a few weeks? Lots of thoughts here.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

Stuart Frost is head of Frost Venture Partners (www.frostvp.com), and the founder of DatAllegro, which he started in Orange County and eventually sold to Microsoft for $275M in 2008. DatAllegro was one of the first companies in what is now the "big data" industry, and helped to pioneer the entire segment. It's been great.

Incubator 208

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ).

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. I was recently on TWiST with Jason Calacanis.

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

Even bigger is the desire to stick one’s middle finger up at all of the people who doubted you all along. ” When Elon Musk set out to build SpaceX he wasn’t greeted with enthusiasm from the space community not used to having a private enterprise challenge the government funded space exploration of NASA. It is safe.

Technical Review 417

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

It’s your startup, so you can give early partners any title you want, but be aware of potential investor and peer implications. VCs and Angel investors like to see a startup that is running lean and mean, with no more than three or four of the conventional C-level or VP titles. Chief Sales Officer (VP Sales). Chief Brand Officer.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

As I’ve written about recently, at Upfront Ventures we started talking a couple of years ago about wanting to fund stuff with more meaning. I think this is a combination of being realists as venture capitalists that outsized returns in our funds must come from taking on bigger, more impactful projects that can move markets.

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socalTECH

JANUARY 3, 2011

To start off the year, we are publishing our first interview for the season with Jamie Siminoff , the CEO of Los Angeles-based Unsubscribe.com , an online service which helps you unsubscribe from unwanted newsletters and email lists. in funding from Charles River Ventures, First Round Capital, DFJ Frontier, and angel investors.

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socalTECH

AUGUST 8, 2018

We spoke with Dave Fink , CEO and co-founder of Posite, and Jonathan Neddenriep , co-founder and CTO of the company, to learn more. We woke up and saw the same pattern, over-and-over. I understand both of you came out of Science Inc, the startup studio/incubator? Photo: Dave Fink on left, Jonathan Neddenriep on right.

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socalTECH

JUNE 30, 2016

Phil Hui-Bon-Hoa: If you have ever been in a position where people come to you to as for help, you find that you end up answering lots of the same questions, over and over again. That ends up being a waste of time, especially in larger enterprises. How did the company start? What is Kaleo?

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socalTECH

MAY 2, 2017

Andrew Bermudez , co-founder and CEO of Irvine-based Digsy (www.getdigsy.com) wasn't looking to build software to help commercial real estate brokers close more deals. He was just trying to collect more data for his startup on what was happening on real estate deals that the company had been referring to brokers.

Sales 145

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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. I will soon announce a few fundings (not yet closed, sorry) and I’m beginning to help them think about how to ramp up their engineering teams. But they must all start somewhere. Whom to Meet?

Networking 366

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socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

Rufus Labs is one of a number of hardware startups which have started to proliferate in the community, due to low cost hardware, 3D printing, and crowdfunding sites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo. Where they start to fail, is one, they are handheld. Because of that, wearables have a good leg up.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

We caught up with Ryan (who calls himself an "anti-VC") to hear more about his investment firm, which has invested in such companies as Heal , Elite Daily , Saucey , and FragMob. Tell us a bit of the story on how you started HashtagOne? Ryan Blair: The theme around the fund is pretty simple. What's the theme of your investments?

Venture Capital 100

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socalTECH

JULY 23, 2012

As a hiring manager, and as the former CTO of Buy.com, Navid Nobakht , Co-Founder of Recmnd.Me ([link] had a problem--how to really figure out if someone he was hiring could actually execute. The problem we're trying to solve, is one I found from in my experience as a hiring manager in the IT industry. is all about?

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socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2014

We caught up CEO and founder Dan Rodrigues to learn more. 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. What does Kareo do? How are you backed?

Startup 160

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 A Different Kind of Incubator - The Hive I recently met with The Hive a new incubator in Orange County. This company was started by Victoria Duff (who many of us know from back in the late 90s), Phillis Lane (who I have known for quite a few years) and Jon Bukosky.

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socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

What is it about the content delivery network market which has enabled Santa Monica-based EdgeCast to go from startup to over $100M in revenues in only a few, short years? We caught up with James Segil , the firm's President, to hear the story behind that big growth at the company. We've grown really fast.

CTO Hire 248

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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. Your goal should be to turn your VCs into extended members of your team to get real value from them.

Tips 365

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Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

He had an idea for a startup that would help consumers better book service jobs and would take on Service Magic, which he believed had a business model that could be disrupted. In the same year they won Business Insider’s Startup competition. But Ethan had left by the time of the acquisition. Nice sweep!

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