article thumbnail

When Should Technical Founders Become CEO?

Both Sides of the Table

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 ).

CTO Hire 309
article thumbnail

The Power of Getting the Band Back Together

Both Sides of the Table

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. Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same.

CTO Hire 320
Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

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

article thumbnail

People Management: Startup Teams Should Dip but not Skip

Both Sides of the Table

As your organization grows and you hire senior staff where you are no longer managing every employee directly the issue of how to manage people that are not your “direct&# reports arises. This applies to both founders and to VC’s that work with them. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact).

Startup 308
article thumbnail

Open Source Business Model

SoCal CTO

He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? I understand his frustration. Dr. Karrer taught Computer Science for eleven years.

article thumbnail

How Frost Venture Partners Is Incubating The Big Data Future

socalTECH

Each of those dimensions really overwhelms existing platforms, whether that's a relational database or business intelligence tools. There's lots of breadth and opportunity here, and some of the things we're doing are horizontal platform plays. Instead, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. EMC's a big investor in one company.

Incubator 208
article thumbnail

Why Online Video Just Took One More Big Step to Legitimacy

Both Sides of the Table

Anyone who reads this blog frequently will know that I am a big believer in low-cost video content and specifically the power of YouTube as a content creation & distribution platform. Our industry just took one big step towards legitimacy with the hiring of renowned media exec Ynon Kreiz to run Maker Studios.

Media 320
article thumbnail

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

Both Sides of the Table

Because I am true to the hiring practices I preach, I wanted a strong exec who would “ punch above their weightclass ” by taking a job they hadn’t yet done but would hugely aspire to and thus work harder to out perform. And we wanted a head of global marketing. It’s more convenient for both sides.

CTO Coach 359