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. Find a lawyer and someone who does CTO searches for VC backed companies in your area. Is it market rate or some reduced rate that you’ve discussed at some point?

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 14, 2009

Cliff Allen is someone I've known for quite a few years and he's a go to person for me when I'm thinking about issues around marketing, sales, technology, startups and networking. I moved into writing software to analyze audience data, and wrote a lot of computer graphics software. What are you working on now? Great stuff.

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InfoChachkie

JULY 14, 2011

Value Prop Twitter Style : “Ringrevenue’s call performance marketing platform enables ad networks, agencies, advertisers & publishers to generate more inbound sales calls.”. In today’s market, so much focus is placed on transacting business online. 10) Rob, why does the world need RingRevenue? . “In

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 13, 2018

The mistake entrepreneurs make is either writing a lengthy email (everybody has too much email so it will get skimmed / not digested) or not having a deck which means the VC can’t quickly determine his or her fit as a potential investor. The key is WHAT you send. Compelling. But what about the privacy / confidentiality concern? Poppycock.

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SoCal Tech Calendar

SEPTEMBER 30, 2011

Entrepreneurs don't like to write business plans, but how do you know if there is real potential for you idea? What type of market research should you conduct? Tony Karrer, CEO/CTO of TechEmpower, will also give a presentation on tips and tricks of starting your own business. Do you have a great idea? See [link] (more)

TechEmpower 100

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 17, 2019

Just as I was getting the swing of things the world shifted beneath my feet and the stock market went into a free fall and venture capital all but shut down for nearly a year. We not only have our Series A funds that can write $500k?—?$15 Jason was a creator and saw a market opportunity that others didn’t.

Venture Capital 223

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But I knew that to be a good decision maker I needed first hand knowledge rather than just a summary from my CTO. But as a CEO you can’t rely solely on this information.

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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? eHarmongy) as an acting CTO. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I asked some of the same questions I ask in my Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions and then I get to a very common conversation: Me : Do you have specs? You likely are writing your first one of these. You might also have a business plan, marketing plan, financials, competitor analysis or other kinds of background document.

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Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You join teams that got good write-ups on TechCrunch, have great VCs, have star CEO’s, whatever. Writing a book will be fun. We brought Ryan Lissack down from San Francisco to become Maker’s CTO and the rest is history. You hire people who look good on paper. After 6 months – you know. You REALLY know.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 30, 2014

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. Meredith came to see me along with the CTO Marc Berte. Did anybody hold patents that would prevent us from using this technology?

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2011

I should try to come back and write about this more, but the point of this post is that it's important not to only think about this aspect. Size of target market $100M is okay. Interesting that they don't need to see really large markets. - > $100 million (will require significant additional funding). is a requirement.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 22, 2007 Discussion Creation Among Bloggers - LinkedIn, Blogging and Discussion Groups Ive been participating in a Yahoo Group that are users of LinkedIn and who are Bloggers: [link] Its an interesting group of folks from diverse backgrounds. And, I dont like to copy and paste.

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socalTECH

JULY 22, 2016

So, I switched to a degree in business and marketing. After college, I didn't go into engineer, I went into the marketing and entertainment side. I actually spent a decade working in advertising and marketing. How did you go from marketing and advertising to a hardware startup? What's the next step for you?

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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 have 35 POPs all over the world, in every major market, and we have more than 6,000 customers today. We caught on with the right product, at the right time.

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Tech Zulu Event

MAY 28, 2013

Dave’s industry experience includes tenures as CTO and CEO of several successful software companies, and upper-level management positions in Fortune 100 companies. He keynotes leading technology conferences on cloud computing, SOA, enterprise application integration, and enterprise architecture. CTO at SOA Software.

SaaS 92

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

In addition to we’re taking GumGum and their very cool advertising opportunities to market. Vince: In addition to my management writing I’ve interview many CEOs and innovators. I’d love to get your thoughts at some point about writing for these publications vs. on your own blog. Example here: [link]. The client has to win.I

Startup 225

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Tech Zulu Event

FEBRUARY 22, 2010

Speakers include: John Shiple, CTO, Ultralive www.linkedin.com/in/johnshiple. Erica Forrette, Online Marketing / E-commerce with a stealth startup (moderator) www.linkedin.com/in/ericaforrette. . Click here to Register. Alex Becker, Co-Founder and President, Highly Relevant www.linkedin.com/in/alexybecker.

Google 56

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socalTECH

MARCH 22, 2012

Michael Dubin: My background is digital marketing, and a little bit of editorial. My first job was as a page at NBC, and after that I went and did a year and a half of writing and production at MSNBC with Keith Olbermann and Chuck Scarborough. You're going up against some giant companies, and marketing budgets.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. He did it yesterday, “Mark, I’m going to write a blog post following on from your VC’s aren’t dumb. ” I know it sounds obvious.

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Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 6, 2013

On myfab5, people rank their favorite places instead of giving them star ratings and write bite-sized reviews instead of writing long reviews. When talking to review site users, we found the top two reasons people don’t write reviews is because it takes too long and it is confusing. Don’t like a restaurant? Who are the founders?

Software Review 79

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Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 26, 2012

You can do this by really understanding your target market and creating them a PDF outlining the solution you will be creating for them. This means selling at least 5-10 customers in advance, before it is even built. This will prove your product is worth building to you and to the developer. Ask for is code samples.

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

I had seen many cycles and decided that since I was going to do it all over again I should write about it. Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. I decided to write about my experience and to be blunt. I don’t plan to write the authoritative venture capital blog, just some anecdotes. And covered we did.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Blogging Startup Slides 274

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Build qualified advisory board.

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Both Sides of the Table

MAY 24, 2021

The Valley has obsessed with a quick up-and-to-right momentum story because we were thought to live in “winner take most” markets. But markets have changed and I think investors, founders and experienced executives who want to join later-stage startups can all benefit from playing the long game. It literally drove FOMO.

Venture Capital 363

Venture Capital Capital Funding Startup 363

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. Marc Berte, the CTO, and a masters from MIT, is exceptionally gifted. ” **. What about loss of efficiency? What about battery charge times?

Technical Review 417

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Both Sides of the Table

MARCH 22, 2011

On the other hand, 10 years ago when we all felt like this last time the total market size for any company was at maximum 100 million potential users. So you’re saying that a decade ago we had 100 million addressable market connected some of the time and now we have 2+ billion connected all of the time. Let’s repeat that.

Ideas 294

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Xconomy

JUNE 6, 2016

In a statement released yesterday, Goldin said the company founded in 2005 as Intellisis and now known as KnuEdge set out “to create technologies that will in essence alter how humans interact with machines, and enable next-generation computing capabilities.”

Artificial Inteligence 62

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Build qualified advisory board.

Startup 104

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socalTECH

APRIL 29, 2014

We spoke with Mike Outmesguine , CEO and Alan DeRossett , CTO of the company, and how their roots in do-it-yourself, "Maker" projects is key to their entry into the prize competition. The X Prize is becoming a marketing partner of ours, and there''s a one year sponsorship for many companies to help sponsor our team.

Startup 262

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Tech Zulu Event

NOVEMBER 5, 2012

Zach Ferres (Chief Technology Officer) has been an entrepreneur since the age of 15. A graduate of Ohio Northern University , Ferres built a digital marketing agency called BounceFire , which was acquired in May 2011 by a company in Phoenix, AZ. Ferres and his team moved to Arizona. What Inspired You?

Mentor 94

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 17, 2017

So, how is it you ended up going from a technology infrastructure entrepreneur at SkyPipeline, to the consumer market with Visalus? As a result, I really saw Visalus as a technology company. We hired the ex-CTO of Sears, and other senior executives out of Disney in software.

Venture Capital 100

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

Forcing yourself to write down a plan is actually the only way to make sure you actually have a plan. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. Build qualified advisory board.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

Being tenacious without the mental flexibility to pivot based on market feedback is a disaster. 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.

Entrepreneur 293

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 12, 2010

Colin Kelley, the CTO of RingRevenue , left a comment in my last post about the need to “ mask interrupts &# in order to get work done. They taught us to write down questions when they came up and batch them together in point sheets. So I often try to stay off of email during the day. It has saved me loads of time not filing.

Product 280

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 22, 2010

Due to competitive markets we ended up with a pretty good term sheet until we needed to raise money in April 2001 and then we got completely screwed. 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.&#.

Venture Capital 405

Venture Capital Pricing Startup Funding 405

SoCal CTO

MARCH 10, 2010

In some cases, part of the definition of minimum is going after technical risk as much as you are going after market risk which is often the focus of lean startups. But what inspired me to write this post was his title “Perfection by Subtraction.”

Product 150

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