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 167

CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 167

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. So, I wanted to use this post to make it official - we are offering free startup CTO consulting sessions.

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. Generally I can provide quite a bit of help in that brief time. Of course, I provide part-time CTO services. So, I wanted to use this post to make it official - we are offering free startup CTO consulting sessions.

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

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

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.

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire CTO Coach Los Angeles Angel 150

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 150

CTO Hire Startup Equity Sales 150

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So, the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity. Amount of venture funding provided.

Equity 99

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 99

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've talked about that in lots of other posts, so you can visit some of these to help determine what you specifically need: Startup CTO or Developer Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Key ingredients in the equation are: How complex is the system? Do you have dollars to pay for development?

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Equity 95

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 95

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. While Bob’s post focuses on Technology Advisors and the Startup Founder Developer Gap , we also discussed advisors more broadly. I side more with Mark Suster who says : “advisory boards are an expensive equity proposition for merely introductions.”

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CTO Coach Startup CTO Hire Template 241

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Startup 174

Startup Equity Patents CTO Hire 174

SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

There are a bunch of questions in Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything and in Startup CTO or Developer. Now there are some hard challenges around what technologies to use to balance short-term and long-term. This is somewhat the heart of what a CTO does. Do not hire a CTO at this point.

CTO Hire 170

CTO Hire Develop Development Startup 170

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90% of the equity. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Equity 62

Equity Startup Patents CTO Hire 62

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I think people understand this title to mean more somebody who handles operational issues rather than somebody who is more like a “chief of staff&# as a COO often is. One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. This person can do budgeting, forecasting, strategic planning, legal, HR, office moves, etc.

Startup 292

Startup CTO Hire Sales Email 292

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology or money. The first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Just because it was your idea doesn’t mean you “deserve” 90 percent of the equity. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Equity 104

Equity Patents Startup CTO Hire 104

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

Most of them are completely mundane such as choosing which: bank, office space, 1-year lease vs. 2-year lease, logo, URL, pricing structure or which VC. The technology team disagrees on direction and wants resolutions. So we discussed his ideas several times. Your head of sales thinks she should fire somebody.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

socalTECH

MARCH 26, 2014

We''ve raised around $72 million now in equity capital. I founded that with the former CTO of my first company, Kevin Smilak, who now works at Google. We were hired by a company that did outsourced medical billing and consulting for physicial medicine and rehab doctors. It''s the last major, huge industry in the U.S.

Startup 160

Startup El Segundo CTO Hire Outsource Development 160

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

Tell me about Bitvore - what''s your technology used for? I was hired to head up strategy, marketing development, and product management. Where did all of that technology come from? Jeff Curie: It is a very advanced piece of technology. That''s the unique nature of this technology. out of UC Irvine.

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Orange County Startup News IBM 245

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 338

Technical Review CTO Hire CTO Coach Software Review 338

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 14, 2009

First, early in the post, Mark mentions: The idea behind the meetup is to connect technology startups with prospective hires who may be interested to work for “alternative compensation”–e.g., reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc. I’ll give you equity in the company.”

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Software Development Develop Development Software 150

Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 11, 2013

It provides tools like the Equity Calculator and curates and vets vendors that service startups. They took the “Match.com for entrepreneurs” model literally and hired the former CTO of Match.com to create the algorithms to help predict and recommend matches.

Entrepreneur 87

Entrepreneur Santa Monica Startup CTO Hire 87

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. It depends on the business, people, technologies, etc. However, I’m always doing this part-time.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Technical Advisors CTO Coach Startup 170

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

I.e., they need a developer more than they need a CTO. What happens when you have a really good developer is that a gap exists where you may not ask the right questions to specify the right system, consider appropriate 3rd party technologies, etc. Many are not interested in 3rd party technologies that can streamline development.

Develop 280

Develop Development CTO Coach CTO Hire 280

socalTECH

MARCH 10, 2010

Robin Richards: After selling Notification Technology to Blackboard, we kind of sat around and said--where is there a marketplace, that can do some good, really needs to be developed using technology, and where there is no major player involved. It looks like you bought an existing property as part of startup up the site?

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Startup Content Sites CTO Coach 223

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Call it facts for hire.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Coworking Spaces - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , September 2, 2010 I've never been much of a fan of incubators. can’t believe how much time people devote to answering questions on it.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

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. equity debate. Every time I see my graduate students try to teach for the first time, it’s usually so painful I bite my lip.

Startup 191

Startup Venture Capital Blogging CTO Hire 191

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. 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. As I gear up to give a keynote at the annual Seattle 2.0

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317