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?

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." " Steve Blank divides the individuals associated with startups as: Founders Early Employees (Employees # 1-25) Later Employees (Employees # 26-125) The reality is that the definition of founder and employee is not clear.

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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?

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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. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?

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SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

So, here goes: Dr. Tony Karrer Over the past 15 years, Tony has been a part-time CTO for more than 30 startups. Most notably, he was the original CTO for eHarmony for its first four years making him partly responsible for more than 4% of the marriages every year. Tony has a Ph.D.

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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.

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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. They both would have lots of thoughts and ideas. What type of shares?

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CTO CTO Hire CTO Coach Equity 150

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?

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Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. This is when your job function truly starts to match the definition of “leader” because that’s exactly what your role is. You hire great people. You set direction.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

they need a developer more than they need a CTO. Ideally, you would have had a technical advisor, had better up-front definition, had more iteration, then you would not be in this situation. Other Topics Covered I also covered topics that are covered more thoroughly in the following posts: Document Your MVP for a Developer.

Develop 280

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Startups that come to me and ask me to sign an NDA in order to get Free Startup CTO Consulting really are missing it. Definitely take a look at he suggests you balance the choices. I also will point out that in the The 15 Mistakes of First Time Entrepreneurs : 9. Definitely read the whole thing. " Ummm.

Startup 211

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socalTECH

MARCH 21, 2013

Debra Domeyer: Number one, we're definitely showing leadership in mobile innovation. We've now putting more focus on technology, and we have a new CTO, new engineering leads, have rebuilt our platform on Ruby on Rails, and we're now putting more emphasis on technology. What are the major business areas Oversee is focused on nowadays?

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Startups that come to me and ask me to sign an NDA in order to get Free Startup CTO Consulting really are missing it. Definitely take a look at he suggests you balance the choices. I also will point out that in the The 15 Mistakes of First Time Entrepreneurs : 9. Definitely read the whole thing. " Ummm.

Startup 198

Startup IP Ideas Patents 198

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. That's something we're definitely going to consider and look at for the longer term, but we have no specific timeline. We're in the domain of hiring relatively technical people, gearheads.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 17, 2022

In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 154

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

But my definition of the word is much broader. Ryan Lissack is the CTO of Maker Studios. And it launched this author’s career and taught me everything I know about sales, marketing, hiring, firing, fund raising and so on. I think we should encourage an entire generation to think about building startups.

Startup 390

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socalTECH

MARCH 14, 2011

Scot Richardson: I'm definitely the business side of the co-founders. My co-founder is Nasi Peretz, who is CTO of West Side Rentals, another LA company, and who also ran properties at USC for the business school and law school. Scot Richardson: Yes, they've hired us, and we hope it's a good sign. Are venues finding this useful?

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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., That said, it definitely is difficult to find really good startup software developers. reduced salary, partial equity, good experience, etc.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. 8220; His three things (worth reading his whole post anyway) are set vision/strategy and communicate broadly, recruit/hire/retain top talent, and make sure there’s enough cash in the bank. It’s great advice.

Startup 191

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 25, 2007

I personally believe that the best way to hire, find partners, and find a job is through a network. Work Your Network Once you have your one pager ready, I'd definitely use LinkedIn to see who I can already find. Since, I've given them the same advice, I thought it was worth putting in my blog. Don't make the list too long.

Networking 183

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2014

In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. No historical baggage.

Software Review 107

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. No historical baggage.

Software Review 103

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. No historical baggage.

Software Review 96

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. This is a fancy title for a personnel manager in a large corporation who keeps track of all the hiring and firing, and has a staff to build job descriptions and personnel policy documents. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.

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Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than hiring decisions. No historical baggage.

Software Review 92

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Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. This is a fancy title for a personnel manager in a large corporation who keeps track of all the hiring and firing, and has a staff to build job descriptions and personnel policy documents. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.

Startup 97

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 20, 2010

Let me go back and do my classic search for "eHarmony of" startup and find a few examples to use: People to Projects (Managers) People to Jobs (Hiring Managers) Students to Tutors Each of these involve matching people to people (I’ve stayed away from content matching in these examples). What do I mean by this?

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Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. This is a fancy title for a personnel manager in a large corporation who keeps track of all the hiring and firing, and has a staff to build job descriptions and personnel policy documents. More executives, or other more creative titles are seen as a big red flag.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions. Marty Zwilling.

Software Review 88

Software Review CTO Hire Outsource Development Startup 88

socalTECH

JULY 23, 2009

Therese is the former CTO at SunGard Treasury Systems, and has a wealth of experience in the financial software market. I had actually retired from SunGard as CTO before starting BlackLine. Our wonderful reputation has definitely been an impetus for growth. We spoke with Therese Tucker , CEO and founder of the Calabasas firm.

Startup 124

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SoCal Delicious

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business.

CTO Coach 28

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Tech Zulu Event

SEPTEMBER 11, 2012

CallFire today extended its position as a leading provider of text message and voice apps that help organizations grow, with the launch of a definitive next-generation platform capable of scaling to meet the exploding global demand for advanced cloud telephony features, services and capacity.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. Partner decisions are more important than team member hiring decisions.

Software Review 56

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Frank Addante

JANUARY 23, 2007

Scrappy engineers are harder to find and keep motivated than Steady engineers, so achieving this ratio is definitely a challenge. Ive hired some of my best people straight out of college, taxi cab drivers and have even stolen coffee makers from Starbucks. How do you identify a Scrappy engineer?

Outsource Development 40

Outsource Development Develop Development Product 40

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. However, it definitely has served as a hub.

Blogging 150

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, February 23, 2007 Events and Networking in Los Angeles One of the issues I discussed in Innovation and Geography was that the geography and traffic in Los Angeles generally makes it more difficult for networking. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

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