Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

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 ). and Microsoft had become.

CTO Hire 309

CTO Hire Organization Google Course 309

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

So, the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Building a new business is quite different from an executive role in a mature company, so people from these backgrounds are often a liability. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge.

Equity 99

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 99

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Building a new business is quite different from an executive role in a mature company, so people from these backgrounds are often a liability. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge.

Startup 174

Startup Equity Patents CTO Hire 174

socalTECH

MARCH 12, 2013

The company--which is in the business of operating a content delivery network (CDN) to accelerate the delivery of web graphics, multimedia, applications, and more to end users-- recently disclosed it more than doubled its revenues in 2012, and has grown to over 230 employees--all due to a huge amount of demand for CDN services by its customers.

CTO Hire 248

CTO Hire Content Networking Web 248

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

Working hard together at a big company just isn’t the same. 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. Who came in the office at 2am when the servers crashed – even on the night of the big company party.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Startup CTO Coach Venture Capital 320

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. ” Of course I agree with this. Of course we fancy ourselves as the best sales people in the company. ” Those were the rules.

Startup 150

Startup Sales CTO Coach Course 150

socalTECH

MARCH 8, 2013

DatAllegro was one of the first companies in what is now the "big data" industry, and helped to pioneer the entire segment. Now, Frost has set up shop buildling out a whole series of companies in the industry, and we caught up with him to learn more about the companies (Predixion Software, Cirro, Lineage, Kumo, etc.)

Incubator 208

Incubator Startup CTO Hire Ideas 208

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 7, 2013

I’m super excited to announce that GRP Partners led the investment in Ethan Anderson’s new company MyTime (link has LA-based merchants but will give you a good feel for the product). BuildOnline (the company I founded) has just announcement plans to be more aggressive in growing in the US. Let me not bury the lede.

CTO Coach 359

CTO Coach Google CTO Hire Yammer 359

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? that talked about a recent NY Times article When It Comes to Innovation, Geography Is Destiny. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO.

CTO Coach 150

CTO Coach Southern California CTO Hire Social Media 150

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. Great companies are comprised of great individual point people or functional leaders. There are plenty of great leaders who work really hard and work for big companies. It’s lost salary for a period of time. They finally quit.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur Startup Venture Capital CTO Hire 293

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Building a new business is quite different from an executive role in a mature company, so people from these backgrounds are often a liability. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge.

Equity 95

Equity Patents CTO Hire Startup 95

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

I think I’ve read Paul Graham’s post on “ Startup = Growth ” three or four times now. And of course on Twitter I’ve seen the Tweets, ReTweets and superlatives on what a great post it is. Eventually a successful startup will grow into a big company. He said, “I’m not really convinced.

Startup 390

Startup Venture Capital Entrepreneur Technical Review 390

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

This is part of my Startup Advice series. I had a picture in the office of my first company with the logo above and the capital letters JFDI. (In Good entrepreneurs can admit when their course of action was wrong and learn from it. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Technical Review Slides CTO Coach 414

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ideally, they will have links to distributors you need, or even be investors in your company as well. It will be wrong, so count on iterating, but you learn something each time, and that is traction.

Funding 112

Funding Entrepreneur Startup CTO Hire 112

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

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. While I do fill that role at the moment, I'm a little hesitant to refer to myself as a CTO as we still haven't launched a product, acquired a single user, or turned or a penny in profit. Who will do that?

CTO Coach 231

CTO Coach CTO Hire Outsource Development Develop 231

InfoChachkie

FEBRUARY 17, 2011

Messenger : Thorsten von Eicken , RightScale’s Co-Founder and CTO, Chief Architect at Citrix Online (formerly Expertcity) and Professor of Computer Science at Cornell University and UC Santa Barbara. I taught a somewhat crazy course about writing and deploying a scalable website in Ruby on Rails and deploying it in EC2.

Cloud Computing 188

Cloud Computing Santa Barbara EC2 Startup 188

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ideally, they will have links to distributors you need, or even be investors in your company as well. It will be wrong, so count on iterating, but you learn something each time, and that is traction.

Startup 104

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 104

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

The first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Building a new business is quite different from an executive role in a mature company, so people from these backgrounds are often a liability. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge.

Equity 104

Equity Patents Startup CTO Hire 104

socalTECH

OCTOBER 4, 2010

The company provides SAT, ACT, and other similar test preparation courses and related software. To hear about the company, we spoke with Ramit Varma , co-founder of the company. It was us, funding ourselves from credit cards, literally, to a company that is now on par with Kaplan and Princeton Review.

Software Review 178

Software Review Technical Review Education Startup 178

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

So the first question I usually get is what percent of the company or equity is that person worth? Building a new business is quite different from an executive role in a mature company, so people from these backgrounds are often a liability. Building the product may be the easy part of your startup challenge.

Equity 62

Equity Startup Patents CTO Hire 62

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ideally, they will have links to distributors you need, or even be investors in your company as well. It will be wrong, so count on iterating, but you learn something each time, and that is traction.

Startup 101

Startup CTO Hire Press Customer 101

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CIO) and a product lead (CTO). Ideally, they will have links to distributors you need, or even be investors in your company as well. It will be wrong, so count on iterating, but you learn something each time, and that is traction.

Tips 88

Tips Startup CTO Hire Press 88

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

aka: An Open Letter to the Next Big Social Network) - 500 Hats , November 1, 2010 I've held off writing this post for a long time, because I couldn't quite get my head around all the issues. Who better to answer than the company's engineering lead. How to Take Down Facebook -- Hint: It Ain't Twitter. But I don’t think so. call to arms.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Startup Product Technology 175

Frank Addante

JUNE 4, 2006

. ► November (1) 2 Ears and 1 Mouth: There's a Reason ► October (2) Be Best at Something Tear Down Your Firewalls ► September (3) Elements of Sustainable Companies We're Not Saving Lives. Web Development & Marketing Technology) Exit: evolved into L90 (next company) Lesson: What you dont know cant stop you.

Startup 40

Startup Venture Capital Email CTO Hire 40

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 28, 2011

It’s my belief that through exceptional leadership you attract great teams that do more than the sum of the parts. Nearly every company faces its crisis moments and only through the inspiration , focus and dedication of the leadership can you motivate teams to dig in deep and come out the other side stronger. ON LEADERSHIP.

CTO Hire 363

CTO Hire Technical Review Startup Demand 363

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. I applied to hundreds of jobs: low-level VC roles, startups jobs, even to big tech companies. Big companies rejected me outright or gave me a courtesy interview before rejecting me. Kanye West. Carpe Diem.

Startup 191

Startup Product Technology Venture Capital 191

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Of course I have. I’ve always been a big believer that just a couple of key individuals make all of the difference in a company’s success. I was meeting with a first-time CEO of a very promising young startup recently and offering my advice on what his priorities should be. Patron Companies.

Venture Capital 317

Venture Capital Technical Review Startup Press 317

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

If you are recognized as an expert in the business area of your startup, with a good reputation, and you know all the key vendors and customers, your value is huge. Sacrifice and time commitment. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO? Domain expertise and connections. Building a product doesn’t get it distributed and sold.

Startup 101

Startup Entrepreneur Equity CTO Hire 101

Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

If you are recognized as an expert in the business area of your startup, with a good reputation, and you know all the key vendors and customers, your value is huge. Sacrifice and time commitment. Who will be the CEO, CFO, and CTO? Domain expertise and connections. Building a product doesn’t get it distributed and sold.

Equity 91

Equity Startup CTO Hire CTO Coach 91