article thumbnail

Hiring Developers Before Product/Market Fit?

SoCal CTO

Using my StartupRoar as a radar, I came across a great post by Gabriel Weinberg Do you really need a full-time hire for that? Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO.

CTO Hire 205
article thumbnail

What is a CTO?

Austin Startup

As a CTO, I can definitely say without a doubt that few people understand what a CTO does. When I tell someone I’m a CTO, I’m often met with a blank stare. Even when someone is aware of what a CTO does, they often have limited context due to the wide variety of CTO roles.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Corporate Acquisitions of Startups: Why Do They Fail?

Steve Blank

More often than not the results of these acquisitions are disappointing. In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. The goal is to get a corporate investment or an outright acquisition of the startup.

article thumbnail

Why Entrepreneurs Should Be Respected More Than Loved

Both Sides of the Table

But if you level up , raise capital and grow customers, revenue and staff – life changes. Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. You hire great people. Do you hire more sales people? You set direction.

CTO Hire 385
article thumbnail

How to Create a Marketing Playbook for Consistent Campaigns

ConversionXL

They map out a repeatable process to avoid chaos and confusion in your team and with customers. This consistency creates familiarity, breeding trust that turns prospects into customers and customers into advocates. So, how can marketers align every department for a consistent customer experience? Positioning.

Campaign 149
article thumbnail

Announcing a Deal I’ve Wanted to Talk About for a Year

Both Sides of the Table

Because I am true to the hiring practices I preach, I wanted a strong exec who would “ punch above their weightclass ” by taking a job they hadn’t yet done but would hugely aspire to and thus work harder to out perform. RedBeacon went on to sell to HomeDepot in what was considered a very successful acquisition on all sides.

article thumbnail

Finding Good Developers in Los Angeles?

SoCal CTO

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Saturday, February 17, 2007 Finding Good Developers in Los Angeles? Im part of a CTO group that meets once a month to discuss various topics. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.