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.

Technical Review 418

Technical Review Software Review CTO Hire IP 418

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

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. You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Writing a book will be fun. After 6 months – you know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. But when I’m looking to write my check I need to look in the eyes of the captain — the maestro who brings the whole orchestra together. We weren’t ready to hire an associate yet so I offered him a summer internship. Why should I be?

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Brad Feld hadn’t written his seminal “ term sheet series &# and The Funded hadn’t yet been created. I’m not sure I really even need to write this at length because Nivi absolutely nailed the topic in his article “ The Option Pool Shuffle.&#. You’ll need to hire and retain talen to grow your company.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? that talked about a recent NY Times article When It Comes to Innovation, Geography Is Destiny. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

By spending more time educating your board on your business you get more valuable advice from them. 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.

Tips 365

Tips Email Venture Capital CTO Coach 365

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There is a battle between entrepreneurs who try to change the world and solve a meaningful problem and those who write take-down pieces with no apparent personal benefit other than attention. We hired outside experts. Time will tell. If anything I’d like to fund 5 more teams and projects this ambitious. ” **.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review Startup Software Review Course 417

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

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. Software-as-a-service companies write good software, and network companies build good networks, but rarely do you find both that do that well as the same time.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

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. Chris Devore & Andy Sack have created Founder’s Coop with the goal of funding, incubating & launching more early-stage ventures in Seattle.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

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.

CTO Hire 147

CTO Hire Startup Sites Technical Review 147

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

Last week, Santa Monica-based Revolution Prep announced its first, institutional round of funding, worth $15M, from Kennet Partners. It was us, funding ourselves from credit cards, literally, to a company that is now on par with Kaplan and Princeton Review. How did you manage the growth you have, without outside funding?

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Every investor expects to see some business traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Now investors will pay attention, since scale-up funding is less risky and has a time frame.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

9) In Getting The Band Back Together , I write about the power of serial Founding teams. At CallWave, Colin was CTO, Jason was CFO and I was in charge of product marketing and customer acquisition. Why aren’t there a half-dozen well-funded startups running up your tailpipe? We’re always hiring great people. You’re right.

Marketing 209

Marketing Advertising Paid Search Startup 209

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

Every investor expects to see some traction, both before and after a funding event. If you have neither, and choose to approach an investor, you will get no attention, and probably never again get a shot at funding with that investor. Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

Ryan Blair: The theme around the fund is pretty simple. We hired the ex-CTO of Sears, and other senior executives out of Disney in software. I learned a hell of a lot, invested my gains, and set up my venture fund, knowing I was going to monetize the network I had created. So where is the fund now?

Venture Capital 100

Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review Software Review 100

socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

Gabe Grifoni: I had actually transitioned to the writing side, and focusing on tech. That got me to CES for some technical writing and journalism, and I started checking out the scene. Plus, we've hired a new CTO and CRO to help grow the tech and business side. It's kind of the two halves that got me here.

Technical Review 100

Technical Review Startup Software Review CTO Hire 100

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Messenger : Thorsten von Eicken , RightScale’s Co-Founder and CTO, Chief Architect at Citrix Online (formerly Expertcity) and Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and UC Santa Barbara. I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Tech Zulu Event

OCTOBER 3, 2012

Kaiser joined forces with Bruce Schwartz (Founder and CTO) to write an entirely new code language they called Interactive Television Markup Language (ITVML). is shopping around for Series A funding and they are making the rounds at conferences and panels on the future of television discussing their remarkable new technology.

Screening 109

Screening Content CTO Hire Platform 109

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

. – Digital Messaging Infrastructure Company (incubated by Addante and Associates, LLC) Age: 25 - 29 (present) Time Period: 2002 - present My Role: Founder High Point: TBD Here is a summary of my experiences to-date with StrongMail: 1. Venture Capital Funding 7. First-time Sequoia CEO Insecurity 10. Relaxing 2.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

So yes, I want to hire somebody with really high IQ and EQ but not somebody who is more knowledgeable at your specific skill set than you are. I’ll write that post one day – it is a very interesting story. I meet entrepreneurs all the time who tell me one of the following things: “I’ve had trouble raising money.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. But I didn’t write it for you; I wrote it for myself. Call it facts for hire. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

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. We had to write a CRM to keep track of them all. And they can be successful their first time around. I've funded some myself.

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. An important key is NOT to dodge the discussion up front, come to some agreement quickly, and write it down.

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. An important key is NOT to dodge the discussion up front, come to some agreement quickly, and write it down.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91