SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

I was just interviewed by Frank Peters - Tony Karrer and the Founder-Developer Gap. It was a lot of fun for me. I’ve listened to Frank’s show for several years. 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.

CTO Hire 170

CTO Hire Developer Founder Startup 170

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. The last two categories are quite variable on their own and there’s quite a bit to those kinds of engagements as they often are not as well defined.

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Technical Review Advisory Board Technology Fractional CTO 150

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 7, 2010

This is purely anecdotal, but it seems like a lot of companies are hiring technology talent here in Southern California. I’ve recently seen several tweets from software development companies looking for talent. And I’ve heard from several people looking for Startup Software Developers. And we have been looking to hire several positions (but are being really picky as is normally the case).

Southern California 150

Southern California California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

APRIL 22, 2010

One of the common questions that I commonly get is: Tony, what inputs should we use as the basis for our matching algorithm? Every time I hear that question, it worries me a bit. eHarmony came with lots of research behind the dimensions of compatibility and how those related to marriage longevity and happiness. The people asking the above question don’t have that research and they also don’t really know how the matches should occur.

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Algorithm Matching Software Review Design 170

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 28, 2010

Yesterday, I met with someone at the early stage of a startup. He has a great concept with some complexity to it. He was struggling to find high quality developers in Los Angeles. Just the kind of person I like to meet. :) But I was a bit surprised when he emphasized how hard it had been for them to find a web developer in Los Angeles. My flippant comment was, “If you do a Google search for Los Angeles web developer, you’ll find a LOT of people and firms.

Los Angeles 167

Los Angeles Web Development Web Developer 167

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

More Visible Networking? this time with Vince Thompson. You’ve got a REALLY diverse background. What’s the short version? Vince: I’m an author, speaker and management consultant with a special expertise in online media sales. I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days.

Los Angeles 225

Los Angeles Revenue Southern California Social Network 225

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

Tim Berry has a great post on Why I Hate Those Huge Market Numbers tells us that he doesn’t like to see business plans with multi-billion market numbers used as the basis for projections. It’s the old – 5% of massive market gives us a big number. I agree completely: If it makes you feel better to give me that number in passing, okay, go ahead, but don’t put any emphasis on it.

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Metrics Startup Retention Software Developers 159

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2010

I just got done reading a post by Roger Ehrenberg Advice for CTO Founders: Don't Let Business Kill the Business where he suggests that CTO Founders should not move too early in finding a business cofounder: 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.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Founder 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 2, 2010

I love blog conversations. Based on my posts Startup CTO or Developer and Acting CTO , Chris O’Meara wrote an interesting post Startup CTO: Could It Work? Chris starts with a description of the person that pretty much every startup is looking for: Their primary characteristics are deep technical skills and a hacker mentality. They tend to have the knack for architecture.

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Architecture 150

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 11, 2010

This month’s big question is Examples of Big Impact from Technology and I’ve taken it as an opportunity to go back and look at the elements of different projects that I’ve worked on over the years that have had a big impact. In this post, I’m going to focus on a common model that has been part of several of the highest impact projects. At it’s core, the model is pretty simple: Guide through setting meaningful personal goals Teach how you can hold yourself accountable to those goals Help the user

Technical Review 167

Technical Review Management Sales Customer 167

SoCal CTO

APRIL 8, 2010

Some great posts in March The following are the top items from featured sources based on social signals. If I Launched a Startup - The Startup Lawyer , March 17, 2010 Great advice on initial steps of setting up a Startup. 9 Reasons Why Many Smart People Go Nowhere - Life Beyond Code , March 29, 2010 You would have met many smart people who live a mediocre life.

Software Review 150

Software Review Startup PR Exit Strategy 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

Here are some recent great posts that I’ve come across that generally fall in the intersection of startups and CTOs. Enjoy. Startup Killer: the Cost of Customer Acquisition | For Entrepreneurs , February 2, 2010 Looks at the critical equation around customer acquisition cost vs. customer lifetime value similar to what I discussed in Startup Metrics but in more depth.

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Acquisition Cofounder Technical Cofounder Cost 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

I’m planning on going to a Tech Coast Angels mixer tomorrow and the topic for me is whether there is angel funding out there for startups that don’t meet classic VC models. If there are, then who are they, what are the criteria, what does it typically look like? By way of background for the question, there’s a great post by Bob Aholt, a Pasadena Angel: An Angel Investor’s Thoughts on Valuation.

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Hockey Stick NPV IRR Valuation 205

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 5, 2010

The analysts at Morgan Stanley have produced a report that’s quite good reading on some of the major trends concerning mobile web. The report consists of: The Mobile Internet Report Summary Slides – a 92-slide presentation that provides highlights on the key themes The Mobile Internet Report Key Themes – a 659-slide presentation that drills down a bit more The Mobile Internet Report – a 424 page report which explores 8 major themes in depth and includes the two aforementioned slide presentations

Internet 204

Internet Mobile Social Network Networking 204

SoCal CTO

MARCH 30, 2010

People seem to be missing the really big picture of the value of social media and really the Internet for that matter. They look at how current social networking sites work and how online and offline relationships currently work and make the assumption that this represents the value proposition. Case in point the recent HBR blog post: The Social Media Bubble , by Umair Haque where he advances the following hypothesis: Despite all the excitement surrounding social media, the Internet isn't connec

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Social Media Matching Media Cofounder 179

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 2, 2010

Google Code just release the API console. It better organizes Google’s APIs and I even discovered a couple new APIs. Right now (more are expected soon) it provides: Buzz API - Google Buzz provides developers with a powerful set of API endpoints for searching, reading, and updating post content and metadata. Custom Search API - Google Custom Search enables you to search over a slice of the web, such as your own website, or a collection of websites.

API 175

API Metadata Artificial Inteligence Algorithm 175

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 29, 2010

Just saw this tweet fly by: Unfortunately, this CTO happens to be the CTO of a restaurant chain which was probably the reason that this was tweeted. But the point is pretty simple. As a CTO, you need to always remember that you are a bit on stage and people notice what you do even when you don’t realize it. It’s important to bring a bit of caution to things as simple as going to the bathroom.

Social Media 167

Social Media Engineer Video Media 167

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 2, 2010

I’ve updated my earlier post on Networking Events Los Angeles with some great suggestions from Lorin Cha who I just met through LinkedIn. Here were the new ones: LeanLA Startup Circle Meetup I’ve gone to a couple of these. Often the presentations are pretty basic because of a fair number of newbies in the audience. However, there are some great folks who have lots of experience also attending so the networking and discussion is generally pretty great.

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Los Angeles Web Social Media Early Stage 167

SoCal CTO

MAY 18, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups, Startup Development and being a Startup CTO. Here are a couple of the other collections: 16 Great Startup Posts from March , Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April. Some good ones already from May: "Authentic" is dead - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , May 3, 2010 Phrases that should be retired include - “Putting customers first” You Actually Did This?

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Churn Rate Flash Startup Metrics 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 7, 2010

On my eLearning blog, I recently predicted the Beginning of Long Slow Death of Flash. This got quite a lot of passionate response. I view the point of this blog to provide my thoughts and perspectives as an Acting CTO mostly concerned with Startup Development to entrepreneurs and other CTOs. The conversation around Flash is an important one for startups and CTOs.

Flash 150

Flash HTML Stock Mobile 150

SoCal CTO

APRIL 21, 2010

I guess it was bound to happen, I now seem to be writing a series of posts around Matching. This is where I’ll keep my list of these posts, related articles and posts from other sources: Social Media Matching – Looks at how in many ways, everything is matching. The BIG value lies not in “deep relationships” brought online, but in leveraging the breadth and time-and-place independent access to other people.

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Matching Algorithm Social Media Networking 150

SoCal CTO

APRIL 20, 2010

I’ve had several recent conversations with startups who are building companies based on matching. One of the things that I think gets commonly missed by these companies when I first talk to them is that they need more than providing matching, they need performance support. What do I mean by this? 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 thes

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Matching Hiring Restful Management 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 10, 2010

Steve Blank wrote a great post recently entitled Perfection By Subtraction – The Minimum Feature Set where he explains the real goals around defining a minimum viable product: Founders act like the “minimum” part is the goal. Or worse, that every potential customer should want it. In the real world not every customer is going to get overly excited about your minimum feature set.

Product 150

Product Lean Founder Engineer 150

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. It turns out that I missed October but here are some previous posts in this series: Top 30 Startup Technology and Product Posts for September 2010 Top 40 Startup Posts for August 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March This month there are some amazing posts.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Here they are: How to Minimize Politics in Your Company - Ben's Blog , August 24, 2010 “Who the f

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

SoCal CTO

JULY 13, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March There was some really great content in June. Here are the top 30 along with a brief snippet from the post. 10 Ways To Be Your Own Boss - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , June 18, 2010 The folks at Behance and Cool Hunting asked me to talk at their 99% Conferenc

Cofounder 175

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Term Sheet Startup 175

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Background This post partly really came about as a result of a great conversation yesterday with David Croslin a former CTO at HP who recently conducted an interesting experiment.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Fractional CTO Technology CTO Hire 170

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 5, 2010

Great content again in September that meets at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. This continues my series of posts: Top 40 Startup Posts for August 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts for July 2010 Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March Some great free resources listed this month that I thought were interesting.

Technology 191

Technology Product San Francisco CTO Hire 191

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 13, 2010

One of the topics that came up in my post Mobile Internet Apple Facebook was around open vs. closed platforms. This issue comes up at the start of almost every new startup company in a variety of forms. I’m constantly struggling with trying to figure out the best way to pull together solutions, especially with how fast things move. In this post, I want to look at just the question of when it makes sense to use Facebook Connect, Twitter Oauth, OpenID, Yahoo Browser-Based Authentication, Google Fr

Oauth 292

Oauth Viral Email Naming 292

SoCal CTO

MAY 4, 2010

Some great posts from April 2010 that talk to me in terms of being a CTO at a Startup. No Plan Survives First Contact With Customers – Business Plans versus Business Models - Steve Blank , April 8, 2010 The Twitter Platform's Inflection Point - A VC : Venture Capital and Technology , April 7, 2010 The tradeoff between open and closed - Chris Dixon , April 25, 2010 Not disruptive, and proud of it - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , April 12, 2010 What Makes Something Interesting?

CTO Hire 150

CTO Hire Vesting Venture Capital Startup 150

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March The following are the top items based on social signals. 5 Lessons from 150 startup pitches - A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks , July 11, 2010 I just reviewed several hundred startup pitches for Capital Factory.

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Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217