Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

Jane and Dick, our fearless cofounders of SayAhh, have set up an accounting system and created their first set of financial statements. This week they set out to create their cap table and hire a CTO. The founders each have common shares that will vest over four years. Time to update the cap table.

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Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 22, 2014

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 269

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2024

With a rapidly changing landscape, it’s never been a more exciting time to be an entrepreneur. Ash Ali & Hassan Kubba – Uncovering the Hidden Power of Your Unfair Advantage Both successful tech entrepreneurs with humble roots, Ash and Hassan have a message of hope to share. Which one was your favorite?

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Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Marketing 77

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. All partners have compatible work styles.

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

Gust

APRIL 13, 2014

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” Most entrepreneurs work long hours and weekends to get the job done. Compatible work styles.

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 179

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 8, 2013

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ For a Startup, Two Heads are Always Better Than One.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

Traction is a biweekly podcast where founders share the creative or unusual things they did during the seed stage to make early progress. Founders from LinkedIn , DraftKings , General Assembly , The Muse , Behance , InsightSquared , and more have appeared on the show. How did both these companies come into being at the same time?

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

I always tell entrepreneurs that two heads are better than one, so the first task in many startups is finding a co-founder or two. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated. Amount of venture funding provided.

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Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

Many entrepreneurs of successful tech-based companies do not come from tech backgrounds. However, the biggest mistake that a non-tech entrepreneur launching a tech business is to neglect bringing on a tech savvy co-founder on the management team. CTO Level Board Member or dedicated Adviser (Free or Equity).

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

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. So one of the surest signs you’ve hired a leader is the willingness of his or her former team to re-assemble. After 6 months – you know. You REALLY know.

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Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 29, 2011

A while back I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ Ten Steps in Choosing the Right Startup Partner ”. In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this context, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”

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Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 240

Austin Startup

AUGUST 19, 2018

Being part of a community means lifting each other up and one easy way you can do that is with your mouse clicks… please take 5 minutes to go and vote for these other Austin entrepreneurs! Cultivating Conditions For Inclusion What is a Fractional Executive (CTO, CMO, CFO)? Fractional executives can help you get there.

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO Fractional VPE Austin 48

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 24, 2010

A week ago I talked about how and where to find a co-founder in “ How to Select an Ideal Startup Co-Founder ”. In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” In this article, I’m broadening the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.”

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blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

Technical Co-Founders Are A Myth. An Internet entrepreneur needs a website. Two years ago I got the bug to do an online recruiting startup and I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder - a software engineer who works for no cash - to help me build my dream website. Captain Recruiter. Real Advice. No Nonsense.

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Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Software Engineering 40

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

Finding Technical Cofounders Is Hard. Yesterday, Michael Pope posted an article titled Technical Cofounders Are a Myth. He begins by explaining how he arrived at his conclusion: I began the hunt to find a technical co-founder – a software engineer who works for no cash – to help me build my dream website.

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Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

Steve Blank

MAY 27, 2010

But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. Our conversation led us to Scott Walkers post Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers and why we both recommend that entrepreneurs print it out and tape it to their wall. Then Visio gave us their boilerplate contract.

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review Startup 287

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? Often times, it seems like people are thinking its synonymous with "that guy who gets paid to sit in the corner and think technical deep thoughts" or "that guy who gets to swoop in a rearrange my project at the last minute on a whim."

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View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

Ask a founder of a growing startup what they need most, and you’ll often get an answer along the lines of, “We need great people, and we need them fast.”. Founders need to make sure the quality of the startup’s offerings remains high and provide adequate sales and service support for prospective customers and new users.

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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. Startup Co-Founders: If You Cant Recruit Em, Should You Join Em?

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Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 26, 2010

This is part of my series on what makes an entrepreneur successful. I originally posted it on VentureHacks , one of my favorite websites for entrepreneurs. I started the series talking about what I consider the most important attribute of an entrepreneur : Tenacity. The best entrepreneurs focus on details.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Thursday, March 1, 2007 Entreprenuer Network Great post by Ben Kuo - The Importance of the “Network&# to Entrepreneurs - the informal connections between people in the technology industry here who have a vested interest in helping entrepreneurs take their companies to the next level.

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Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Experienced entrepreneurs We’ve got speakers who are justifiably respected by a lot of entrepreneurs. For example: Mitch Kapor was a founder of Lotus. He’s a founder of Andreessen Horowitz, which has backed Facebook, Skype, Jawbone, and dozens of other companies whose products you use. Eric Ries will interview him.

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Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165

The Next Web

MARCH 10, 2013

This is a guest post by Chris Hollindale, co-founder and CTO of Hasty. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re probably measuring everything you possibly can about your business and your product. For entrepreneurs, there is always too much to do, too many things to take care of, and too many tasks to prioritise.

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Entrepreneur Fractional CTO CTO Hire Stealth 140

View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

Investors love the idea of backing second-time founders, especially if they have had success in their last company. etc… In addition, first-time founders I speak to often talk about how much they have learned and how they resolve to do things differently and better the next time.

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Founder Cofounder CTO Hire Early Stage 159

The Next Web

SEPTEMBER 18, 2012

The accelerator, which counts Amazon CTO Werner Vogels among its startup mentors , will be showcasing its first batch of startups (see list below) in Silicon Valley on the 20th of September, followed by a panel discussion about “The Future of the European Startup Community” Sounds riveting!

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

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.

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Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California CTO Hire 150

Hearpreneur

SEPTEMBER 13, 2019

Whatever the inspiration or relation may be, the naming of your business is one of the most important parts of becoming a CEO. 1- I credit my co-founder. I credit my co-founder Eric Frothingham with coming up with our name. Her picture is my office as an added reminder of the woman I consider our real founder.

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Naming Fractional CTO Entrepreneur CTO Hire 103

Startup Lessons Learned

OCTOBER 11, 2017

Guest post by Jennifer Maerz, Program Chair of Lean Startup Co. For eight years, our flagship conference has focused on sharing stories and lessons of putting Lean Startup’s entrepreneurial methodology into practice. 31 ( limited to the first 200 Gold Passholders.) 31 ( limited to the first 200 Gold Passholders.) Sign up for free here.

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Lean Programming San Francisco Cofounder 108

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

Most of these rhyme with what we’ve said in the past, but some have also evolved to fit the changing landscape and our own convictions about what really matters for founders and their investors at the seed stage. Belief #1: The best time to invest is early. And by early, we mean pre-traction.

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I’d say about 80% of the experienced entrepreneurs & VCs I know privately agreed with me. One great solution I see is to hire an outstanding CFO who runs both. “We’re all equal co-founders and we don’t care about titles.&# Naturally some didn’t. But they aren’t the COO.

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Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Austin Startup

DECEMBER 16, 2018

As I mentioned at the beginning of this series/ebook, over the years I’ve noticed that I tend to frequently share certain Lucky7 posts with entrepreneurs we’ve backed , team members at data.world, or other startup investors I know. So I’m packaging the best of them up for you here in a new series called The Entrepreneur’s Essentials.

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Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Hiring Austin 48

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?

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Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Ryan was the most talented technologist we had hired at BuildOnline. We hired Ryan at a really young age and without a tremendous amount of prior experience. We had a strategy of hiring people really young because we couldn’t afford to hire too many senior people. Tags: Entrepreneur Advice Startup Advice.

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San Francisco South Africa CTO Hire Fractional CTO 322

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 27, 2007 Stanford Podcasts - eHarmony - Greg Waldorf I was just pointed to a set of great podcasts done by Stanford B-School and particularly, I just listed to the podcast by eHarmonys Greg Waldorf. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

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Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Friday, March 9, 2007 Map of VC Investments Found this Map of 2006 VC Investments post. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?

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Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

YoungUpstarts

JANUARY 21, 2016

by Andrew Ostashen, co-founder of Vulsec. Yet cyber security should be a crucial consideration for entrepreneurs during the initial steps of creating their vision. Hire qualified internal resources or outsource as needed for the required IT positions. Bring on a security-conscious CTO at the beginning.

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, March 20, 2007 Kevin Federline Search Engine Just saw a post - Sleep with a pop star, get your own branded search engine. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.

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Technical Cofounder Southern California Search Engineer 150