Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 21, 2022

In my consulting work, when I ask team members in startups and small businesses how they know whether they are doing a good job, the typical response I get is “Nobody has yelled at me today,” or “No news is good news.” To get full engagement, everyone on your team needs to understand the “why” as well as “what” they are expected to do.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2023

In fact, having one marketing guru on the team alone won’t get you very far. You need to make sure that everyone on the team, from the clerical assistant to the chief financial officer, knows your vision and product, and doesn’t hesitate to actively engage and be an effective proponent with anyone who might be of value to the business.

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 5, 2022

It takes an engaged team , or a group of well-connected teams , to build and run a business today. In my consulting work with small businesses and startups, I find that real teamwork is still a rare commodity. A business and a team is more about relationships than roles. The days of a single autocratic leader are gone.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 20, 2020

Entrepreneurs need to be effective team leaders, since no one can transform an idea into a product and a business without some help. Unfortunately many founders I work with as a mentor are experts on the technical side, but have no insight into leading a team. Otherwise, in my experience, the startup will fail.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 27, 2020

Entrepreneurs inherently understand that they have to be the initial leader of their startup, but often they don’t have the experience or the training to know where their leadership competencies lie, or how to build a leadership team. They are excellent mentors and coaches, but have a strong need to be admired and respected in return.

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TechEmpower

AUGUST 14, 2023

Startup founders make decisions on a daily basis – significant decisions that will have lasting impact on their business. Actually, many startups need two kinds of technical advisors. No good innovator turns down advice! Why do this without the right technical advisor? Would you create contracts without an attorney?

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Technical Review CTO Coach CTO Hire Software Review 260

socalTECH

JULY 14, 2020

Pasadena-based Guru , a venture backed startup developing wireless power distribution technology, said this morning that it has released a development kit for its technology, which will allow potential partners to trial its millimeter-wave wireless power products. READ MORE>>.

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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.

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Develop Development CTO Coach CTO Hire 280

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 7, 2020

Every startup founder rightfully starts out as the single leader of the startup, but as the business grows, many entrepreneurs struggle with relinquishing any control, or fail to recognize and allow other leaders to emerge. The right alternative is to focus on finding and delegating some control to the hidden leaders in your startup.

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socalTECH

FEBRUARY 18, 2020

A new, Los Angeles-based startup, Croquet Corporation has raised $2.7M in a seed funding round, to go towards its development of tools to power apps and games for 5G and augmented reality (AR), the company said on Tuesday. The startup--led by CEO and founder David A. in the seed funding.

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TechEmpower

AUGUST 21, 2023

Many CEOs of software-enabled businesses call us with a similar concern: Are we getting the right results from our software team? We hear them explain that their current software development is expensive, deliveries are rarely on time, and random bugs appear. These are classic inflection points for a development team.

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Technical Review Development Team Review Software Review TechEmpower 260

Startup Professionals Musings

JANUARY 15, 2023

Almost every entrepreneur starts their journey by developing a solution, based on their idea of a new technology or required service. These idea and developer skills are necessary, but not sufficient, to build a business. But we can all learn and step up if we get the right guidance. It is a transition built from small changes.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 23, 2010

I’ve come to realize that I have lots of posts around startup software development scattered around in different posts. How to Work With a Contract Web Developer How To Bootstrap Your Startup Thought it would be good to capture them in one spot and also include links to related posts from other sources.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 22, 2015

The most valuable assets of a new startup are the people on the team, and the most challenging task of the entrepreneur and team leaders is to spend their leadership time and energy productively. Most new startup founders start out by assuming they need to spread their leadership efforts evenly across all team members.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 5, 2022

What is needed first is your strong leadership, or even a leadership team, to build a plan, assign the right people, and monitor the steps to resolution. I have found that micro-management can be especially productive if you are working with a first-time or unique situation, or working with a new team with little experience.

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SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

I received a great question via LinkedIn: I'm the founding engineer and working hard to launch my startup. I seem to encounter a lot of people who want to attach a CTO label to me as I'm the only programmer on the founding team of three. I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer.

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socalTECH

SEPTEMBER 29, 2016

Aliso Viejo-based software developer Smith Micro Sofware said that it has launched a new, design and development service, which will help its customers develop their own mobile apps. According to Smith Micro, the service is aimed at B2 enterprises and startups, and help them develop iOS, Android, and Windows apps.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 11, 2014

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 18, 2018

In my years of advising startups and occasional investing, I’ve seen many great ideas start and fail, but the right team always seems to make good things happen, even without the ultimate idea. Yet every entrepreneur I meet wants to talk about the idea, and rarely mentions the team. The sales professional.

Technical Advisors 57

Technical Advisors Startup Outsource Development High Tech 57

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 21, 2021

In my own work as an advisor to many entrepreneurs and startups, I see many who are focused on that single big disruptive innovation that will change the world. Ask teams for a breakdown into incremental, sustaining, and disruptive innovations. Carve out unstructured time for team members to focus on ideas.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

We all like to think of startups as “non hierarchic&# organizations and to some extent that should be true. I see two common mistakes in companies (not just in startups, in fact). And Finally, a word about VC … We VCs need to be as conscious of dipping & skipping as management teams are. A quick example.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 27, 2015

If you are like most entrepreneurs I know, there just aren’t enough hours in a day to get all your own work done, as well as run the many one-hour meetings each team member seems to demand for decisions and mentoring. But it only works if you observe the following principles: Never hide from your team.

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 10, 2013

Almost every startup is a virtual team these days, since most don’t start out with dedicated office space, and some or all members of the team work part-time or out of their own home. It’s a small world, so these team members may not even be in the same town, or the same country. A conflict management mechanism.

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SoCal CTO

JUNE 26, 2012

I've done four Free CTO Consulting Sessions in the past month with startup founders who all had run into variations of the same problem. They didn't feel they had visibility into timelines and costs for development of their software. The teams involved didn't seem to be exhibiting many of the Symptoms of a Weak Development Team.

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Outsource Development Software Development Develop Development 254

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? Did they have a Weak Development Team ? Did they have a Weak Development Team ?

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SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

I was just interviewed by Frank Peters - Tony Karrer and the Founder-Developer Gap. And I always recommend it to people involved in early stage startups. 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.

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socalTECH

MARCH 24, 2016

Los Angeles-based Crexi (www.crexi.com) has taken two, very experienced teams�one from Auction.com, the other from Burstly (acquired by Apple)�and created a �dream team� completely focused on enabling the transaction side of the commercial real estate market online. So tell us a bit about your team and background?

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Technical Review Startup Mobile Marketing 100

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Many of these founders have talked with several developers or development firms about their plans. SEO for Startups )? What are your key Startup Metrics ? Administrators?

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Develop Development Startup SEO 396

socalTECH

NOVEMBER 8, 2011

If you are Twitter , the popular messaging service, where do you go to find startups you might want to work with? Twitter is looking to spur interest in its platform from developers, by holding an event Thursday in Los Angeles aimed at techies, part of a worldwide tour by the firm to promote development on its platform.

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SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Many of these founders have talked with several developers or development firms about their plans. SEO for Startups )? What are your key Startup Metrics ? Administrators?

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Develop Development Startup SEO 384

socalTECH

JUNE 18, 2013

If you''re a marketer, business, or developer wishing you could run a quick survey of your users, it can be an involved process. However, a new startup, SlimSurveys --created by the same team behind TweetPhoto--thinks it has a better way. slimsurvey tweetphoto startup survey sampling plixi' READ MORE>>.

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. Most often at the earliest point in the life of a startup, the dominant need is certainly to produce product to get something in the market, get funding, etc. I’ll address the specifics of what this Founder Developer Gap looks like below.

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socalTECH

APRIL 30, 2018

Los Angeles-based Virgin Hyperloop One , the advanced transportation technology startup which is now backed by Sir Richard Branson, has inked a deal in the country of Dubai , to launch a new startup called DP World Cargospeed.

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socalTECH

OCTOBER 9, 2019

Los Angeles-based Two Bit Circus , which operates a STEM-focused "micro amusement park" that combines entertainment, technology, and often STEM education in its site in Los Angeles, is teaming up with music festival operator Superfly , to launched a new immersive music event series. Financial details of the link were not announced.

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Entertainment Los Angeles Education Startup 113

Berkonomics

NOVEMBER 7, 2013

This is where you find the superb Rails coder, and the world-class information architect, and the consummate sales guy, and the persuasive business development person, and the brilliant CFO. Each of the functions is crucial, and each is required to bring the good idea to fruition. That, however, will not be enough.

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 18, 2021

Most entrepreneurs I know are individually very innovative, but a successful startup can’t be a one-man show (for long). That means they need to build an innovative team, which is not a skill that most people are born with. This requires divergent thinking, with the strengths of every team member, to generate as many ideas as possible.

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 24, 2018

The author outlines eight necessary steps for every business and entrepreneur to capitalize on this movement to on-demand project teams, versus permanent hires. These steps are the new keys to driving business innovation, controlling costs, staying nimble, and getting better results: Build teams to meet goals rather than organization charts.

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