SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. 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. Maybe you are wondering if you have a Weak Development Team ? What Is This?

CTO Hire 264

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 264

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 are likely not paid for a long time and have a sizeable equity percentage for early risk and having the concept. Same Value for Sweat Equity as Investment Dollars?

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Equity CTO Hire Startup Examples 391

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

I talk to roughly 2 or 3 new startups every week who need advice from an experienced CTO. 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. Maybe you are wondering if you have a Weak Development Team ? What Is This?

CTO Hire 259

CTO Hire Startup Technical Review Development Team Review 259

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. I'd suggest: Startup CTO or Developer , Startup Founder Developer Gap , Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO.

CTO Hire 282

CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review Startup 282

SoCal CTO

APRIL 25, 2017

I'm working on a start up idea in the XXX market with my partner and we are currently looking for full stack developer to join us as a technical co-founder. We have been reading about the LA CTO Forum and we thought it would be a great place to find him/her. I've written before about having an Initial Conversation with a Potential CTO.

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Email Startup Develop Development 150

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. I'd suggest: Startup CTO or Developer , Startup Founder Developer Gap , Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO.

CTO Hire 225

CTO Hire CTO Coach Technical Review Startup 225

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?

CTO Hire 150

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SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

I was just interviewed by Frank Peters - Tony Karrer and the Founder-Developer Gap. I received a follow-up question from an early-stage startup about the Founder Developer Gap that I’ve described before and that was part of the interview with Frank. 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

socalTECH

AUGUST 19, 2019

Los Angeles-based private equity investor OpenGate Capital announced this morning that it has acquired Chicago-based InRule Technology , a developer of decision management and business rules management software. Financial terms of the acquisition were not announced. READ MORE>>.

Capital 113

Capital Technology Equity Acquisition 113

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

"I'm looking for a partner / cofounder who can not only head the technical aspects and build a working model of the site, but someone with the connections to put a great development team together when we need it. Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. Find out who is good.

CTO Hire 211

CTO Hire CTO Coach Startup Equity 211

socalTECH

DECEMBER 2, 2015

Irvine-based AutoAlert , a provider of data mining and lead generation tools for auto dealerships, said Tuesday that it has acquired MotoFuze , a company developing customer experience management software for the auto industry. AutoAlert is led by Brian Skutta, and owned by private equity investor HGGC. MotoFuze was based in Kansas.

Chief Technology Officer 100

Chief Technology Officer Equity Sales Tool 100

socalTECH

MAY 17, 2013

Slavin was previously a developer of real estate in the Los Angeles area, and according to the firm is a managing partner at private equity firm Napias Group. According to Privlo said the new funding will go to expand on its recently pilot of its platform, which helps match up private lenders and mortgage borrowers. READ MORE>>.

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Chief Technology Officer CitySearch Ticketmaster Santa Monica 215

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 9, 2017

Los Angeles-based Exym , which develops cloud-based EHR software used by outpatient behavioral clinics, has received an investment from private equity investor Alpine Investors. Terms of the deal were not announced. According to Exym, the transaction is with Alpine Investors V, VI, and VI-A, LP.

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Funding Equity Los Angeles Software 113

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 14, 2009

Just saw a great post by Mark Geller - Developers wanted… in Los Angeles, U.S.A. Mark tells us: there is a lot of demand for developers right here in L.A. reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc. reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc. I’ll give you equity in the company.” They haven’t.

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Software Development Develop Development Software 150

socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 23, 2016

San Diego-based Certona , a developer of personalization software which uses machine learning and predictive algorithms, has raised $30M in a combined growth investment and minority recapitalization. The funding came from private equity investor Primus Capital. Certona was founded in 2004. READ MORE>>.

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Artificial Inteligence Funding San Diego Equity 100

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

TechCrunch LA

MARCH 8, 2019

Responding to Elizabeth Warren’s call to regulate and break up some of the nation’s largest technology companies, the venture capitalists that invest in technology companies are advising the presidential hopeful to move slowly and not break anything. This too shall pass.” ” . ”

Technical Review 144

Technical Review Startup Chief Technology Officer Social Media 144

socalTECH

JANUARY 16, 2013

Lynda.com , the online video education provider which has been one of the region's most successful, bootstrapped companies--is no longer bootstrapped, after inking a massive, $103M growth equity round. According to Eric Robison, the firm's CEO, the funding round will go towards increasing the firm's global reach and expanding content.

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Funding Santa Barbara ReachLocal Southern California 178

TechCrunch LA

OCTOBER 1, 2019

Using its proprietary printing technology, Relativity says it can slash the time it takes to develop a rocket from design to launch by up to two years. Relativity Space chief technology officer Jordan Noone next to one of the company’s 3-D printers. ” .

Chief Technology Officer 168

Chief Technology Officer SpaceX Los Angeles Venture Capital 168

socalTECH

JULY 2, 2014

Camarillo-based sensors and electronics developer Interlink Electronics has named two private equity and venture executives to its board, as part of an expansion of the group, the company said this morning. Levinson also was founder, CTO, and Chairman of testing and optical components company Finisar. READ MORE>>.

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Incubator Equity Develop Development 138

socalTECH

MAY 10, 2012

Los Angeles-based online advertising firm Rubicon Project is significantly boosting its executive ranks today, saying that it has named a new CTO, General Counsel, and SVP of Product Management to the firm.

Ticketmaster 133

Ticketmaster Clearstone Yahoo Web 133

socalTECH

OCTOBER 10, 2013

GreenWave Reality , a startup developing a platform to help manage the "Internet of Things"--and which is headed by former Cisco executive Greg Memo--said this morning that it has raised $19M in a Series B funding round. The round was led by The Westly Group, and also included Craton Equity Partners.

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Venture Capital Platform Equity Organization 124

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. If both of you are experts at software development, even though one loves design and the other loves coding, that still won’t get the marketing done. Complementary skills. Passion for what they do.

Software Review 103

Software Review Equity CTO Hire Outsource Development 103

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

There was a lot of passion in the room last week when I presented Working with Developers at the Stubbs Precellerator. I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. But my developers want to go into way too much detail. In fact, they often don’t really understand the business.

Develop 280

Develop Development CTO Coach CTO Hire 280

socalTECH

JULY 21, 2009

Privately held, San Diego firm Service-now.com , a developer of IT service automation software-as-a-service, has released its yearly financial results, in an unusual move. Service-now is headed by former Peregrine Systems and Remedy CTO Fred Luddy. Tags: servicenow earnings financial private equity. READ MORE>>.

Services 100

Services Report Equity San Diego 100

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The conversation centered around a founder who's key question is "Where Do I Find a Developer for My Startup?" His goal was to find a programmer who would come in as an early partner and work as an Equity-Only Developer. Have you tested what you can without development? Ask a few CTO type people.

Guide 349

Guide Startup Mobile Framework 349

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

The conversation centered around a founder who's key question is "Where Do I Find a Developer for My Startup?" His goal was to find a programmer who would come in as an early partner and work as an Equity-Only Developer. Have you tested what you can without development? Ask a few CTO type people.

Guide 296

Guide Startup Mobile Framework 296

socalTECH

DECEMBER 7, 2016

We talked with Eli Aizenstat , the founder and CEO of Beatshare�and still a student--as well as President and longtime technology vet Barry Lieberman about the startup. Photo: Barry Lieberman, President and COO; Eli Aizenstat, Founder & CEO; and Rob Patrick, CTO). That funding was geared towards development of our product.

Tech Coast Angels 100

Tech Coast Angels CTO Coach Startup Pasadena Angels 100

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 15, 2010

I spoke about the need of the CEO, CTO and head of Products to be in the same location. No problem to have some developers in remote locations. Convertible debt is a loan to the company that doesn’t typically get paid back but rather “converts&# into equity when you raise a larger round at a later date.

Venture Capital 210

Venture Capital Seed Funding Pricing Southern California 210

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. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. He went out and found a developer and built a product. I said that was my point.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

As a result that company is now as valuable as Invoca ( last round raised >$70 million ) so Jason ended up with two very valuable equity positions and has now raised an early-stage seed fund. The reality is that defensible IP takes years to build, takes large teams of dedicated staff to develop and then market, sell and service clients.

Venture Capital 223

Venture Capital IP Startup Google 223

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 also have a growth equity firm out of New York, the Stripes Group, which is run by guys like Ken Fox, and his partner, Dan Marriott.

Startup 160

Startup El Segundo CTO Hire Outsource Development 160

socalTECH

MARCH 31, 2014

I was hired to head up strategy, marketing development, and product management. I then spent a few years at IBM as their Chief Strategy Officer in their identity management area. One of the folks was the CTO of an investment bank in New York, who immediately saw what we did, and said he had a problem he wanted us to approach.

Orange County 245

Orange County Startup News IBM 245

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. In some ways it is similar to early stage incubators such as Y Combinator, although FI is even earlier stage, focusing on developing the founders themselves as entrepreneurs as opposed to actual companies.

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Product Entrepreneur Social Media Google 150

Xconomy

OCTOBER 16, 2016

After raising $30 million, San Diego-based Certona said it is moving to accelerate its product development, expand its sales and marketing team, and improve its client services as an e-commerce technology vendor. Certona uses the data to offer shoppers personalized options based on “real-time profiling.”.

Artificial Inteligence 40

Artificial Inteligence Commerce San Diego Web 40

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. The development community and web developers, who tend to be our customers, like that flexibility, and the quick time to market. It's a mission critical IT service that website owners need.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

If you are on the lower complexity end, the key is defining small chunks of work that can be done quickly by a developer. 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