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The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

Steve Blank

While it seemed like a good idea and had the Navy’s backing, the founders got turned down for funding by companies, investment bankers and everyone, until they talked to John Parker. Norris became the VP of Engineering, Engstrom the VP of Research, and Meader VP of Manufacturing. Why Minneapolis/St.

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See More than 120 Speakers and Mentors at The Lean Startup Conference

Startup Lessons Learned

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. He was a very early employee of Facebook , and engineering director there through the moment it blew up. Eric Ries will interview him.

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Take 5 minutes to help other Austin entrepreneurs and vote in the SXSW Panel Picker!

Austin Startup

Considerations include: transparent qualifications for career progression, increase employee mobility, recognize and reward measurable contributions to diversity health, and highlight hiring gaps with simple questions like, “What are the diversity metrics for incoming candidates?” Fractional executives can help you get there.

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Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

When Ive asked mentors of mine who have worked in big companies about the role of the CTO, they usually talk about the importance of being the external face of the companys technology platform; an evangelist to developers, customers, and employees. So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?"

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Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

As a last disclaimer, please consult the definition of the word hacker if youre not familiar with the controversies surrounding that term.) Our online media company is small, we have 6 employees, great proven leaders, great talent, great cashflow. I would love to have an effective CTO or VP of Engineering to manage me.

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The Future of Web Startups

www.paulgraham.com

In the last batch of startups we funded, we had several founders who said theyd thought of applying before, but werent sure and got jobs instead. We could hire employees, but we want to be forced to figure out how to scale investing. This is a problem for founders, because it makes raising money take longer and cost more in legal fees.

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