Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 30, 2008

Lessons Learned by Eric Ries Tuesday, September 30, 2008 What does a startup CTO actually do? What does your Chief Technology Officer do all day? Thats an important job, for sure, and Ive been called upon to do it from time to time. So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?"

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CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 168

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

I never built a Google-sized business but I did build an organization from scratch that grew to 120 employees in 5 countries before we sold it. As your organization grows and you hire senior staff where you are no longer managing every employee directly the issue of how to manage people that are not your “direct&# reports arises.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

So many tech startups begin the same way: One founder, one dream and a plan to make it happen. Most businesses stay that way - there are many more solo entrepreneurs than business owners with employees. She sold her first tech startup econfidant.com to a larger technology company. Rachel Blankstein.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Hiring Has Changed: Before the press was a way of generating interest for hiring. However with so many companies being funded these days, just getting a mention in a tech blog doesn’t really impact job seekers. Now the employees carry your technology into the enterprise via their own phone and cloud services.

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Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

What does a CTO do? What does a CTO do? What does a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) do in a high-tech company? So what is the CTO job? First it is to ensure that the company has the best technology. A high-tech company lives in a dynamically evolving space. This is where you should see the CTO.

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CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

View from Seed

MARCH 29, 2016

This desperate need for employees often leads to an equally desperate, ad-hoc approach to recruiting without any relevant recruiting metrics being tracked. Founders furiously work their networks, post open positions on every reasonable-looking job board, and hope to quickly start hiring. Applicant source quality: Resumes-to-interviews.

Metrics 120

Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

blog.alinelerner.com

JUNE 21, 2013

making technical recruiting suck less. Lessons from a year’s worth of hiring data. I ran technical recruiting at TrialPay for a year before going off to start my own agency. As soon as you get someone who’s never been an engineer making hiring decisions, you need to set up proxies for aptitude. Jun 21, 2013.

CTO Hire 98

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 98

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

Growth will slow, partly due to internal limits and partly because the company is starting to bump up against the limits of the markets it serves.” ” There’s an allowance for a period of time where there’s “slow or no growth” while you’re figuring things out. Business that are innovative.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

Occam's Razor

DECEMBER 3, 2008

Or atleast 40% of the time you are a true Analysis Ninja, even if 60% of the time you are a glorified Reporting Squirrel! 3) I am simply assuming you are good at tools and some technical stuff and some business stuff. For the longest time, for example, I was well compensated for being a Senior Individual Contributor.

Technical Review 115

Technical Review Analytics Salary Fractional CTO 115

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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CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

It’s also surprisingly difficult for students to get plugged-in to everything that is happening in the local tech ecosystem. Large Tech Meetups: Web Innovators Group : Quarterly Demo-Style meetup in Cambridge draws over 1000 members of the startup community each time. PopSignal - My favorite regular tech gathering.

Boston 56

Boston Technical Review Community CTO Hire 56

adamac.blogspot.com

MARCH 9, 2010

Adam MacBeth Tuesday, April 07, 2009 10 Startup Red Flags Ive worked on a number of startups: from seed-stage through IPO, as a founder, employee, advisor, and consultant, as well as evaluating a bunch from the outside, so Ive seen my share of screw-ups. Ever met a CTO/VP Engineering or CEO/CTO? Adamac Attack! Yeah me neither.

Technical Review 41

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup 41

Hearpreneur

JULY 30, 2016

I am a session singer and producer, and I wish clients and peers would give me more of an opportunity to work in the technical side of the business (such as mixing and editing). I feel like sometimes females aren’t typically seen as tech-savvy in this industry, and that we belong on stage instead of behind the scenes.

Technical Review 48

Technical Review Technical Cofounder Entrepreneur CTO Hire 48

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 10, 2008

Joel is focused on the fact that in many environments, programmers are considered "just the hired help" akin to manual labor, and not treated properly. Notice that none of those five reasons deals with TDD or automated testing, which have changed the game. This is the approach of test-driven-development (TDD).

Software Review 144

Software Review Technical Review San Francisco Continuous Deployment 144

SoCal CTO

APRIL 9, 2013

Are there particular technologies or platforms involved? Have they used the technologies that are involved in your project? You are looking for someone who cares about the look, but you are hiring the development firm for it''s development skills not its graphic design skills. How many full-time W2 employees do you have?

Web Development 204

Web Development Web Developer Los Angeles 204

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

A version of this article is in the Harvard Business Review. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle. 20th Century Tech Liquidity = Initial Public Offering. Hire a CEO to Go Public. If the founder was lucky, he got to stay as chairman or CTO.

Founder 274

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 274

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 4, 2022

Click on over and give us a review on iTunes, please! One of my favorite episodes who should be your first hire, what's your funding plan, Dr. Lisa Cravin shares her top advice from building spotlight oral. I started to appear where we started to leverage or talk about technology and automations and optimization. Like this show?

CTO 79

CTO Cofounder Networking Operations 79

Ben's Blog

AUGUST 29, 2010

In my last post, I mentioned that you should strive to hire people with the right kind of ambition. Curious why should an employee be motivated first by a company’s success? It is particularly important that managers have the right kind of ambition, because anything else will be exceptionally de-motivating for their employees.

CTO Hire 78

CTO Hire Technical Review Leadership Sales 78

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Technology Technology Home Online Business Tools Security Phones & Mobile Gadgets Tech Tips Technology The Future of Facebook -- Streaming Live Now. Product Reviews Mindjet Connect Helps Small Businesses Visualize and Manage Projects. Employees and founders are motivated by different things.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2017

With industries from banking to transportation being transformed and, in some instances, undermined by new business models and technology, executives are smart to wonder, “Are we next?” LESSON #3: Avoid these three hiring mistakes. When it comes time to grow your team, Jeff Jordan and Eric pointed out three hiring mistakes to avoid.

Lean 245

Lean Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 245

firstround.com

SEPTEMBER 10, 2013

The Review. The Review. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. How to Go From Google Engineer to First-Time CTO. Today, he’s the co-founder and CTO of Artillery , bringing console-quality gaming to the web browser. First Round Capital. Plusstartup. Product and Engineering.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire Engineer Software Review Part-Time VPE 52

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 5, 2011

Seattle should be the envy of any non Silicon Valley tech community in the country. It really wouldn’t take much to turn a great technology ecosystem into a truly electric one. Your highest priority right now is hiring the 1 or 2 people that are going to join your company and make a difference.

Seattle 317

Seattle Silicon Valley Technical Review Los Angeles 317

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

Obviously if you target enterprise customers, you usually have a very large ACV (Annual Contract Value) and the product usually is complex. We talk about using the product complexity, your target customer size, your contract value, and whether there's individual use case–those four things--to help you decide if PLG is a fit.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

Startup Company Lawyer

MAY 4, 2009

Applications are due by May 10, 2009. Focus on a high tech or innovative sector, such as biotech, cleantech, and information technology. Joe Betts-LaCroix – CTO, OQO. Hiring and Firing. July 14th, 2009: Implement hiring policies and practices. Description: When to hire and when to fire?

Founder 28

Founder Warrant San Francisco Intellectual Property 28

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. When a startup encounters difficult technical problems, this is the guy you want solving them. As the company grows, hes the go-to person for almost everything technical, and so hes very much in demand. Just change it. All is not lost, though.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

You’ve got a great idea and domain expertise, but limited money and insufficient technology resources. intrapreneurs, e.g., the employee of GE who is tasked with launching a new business. intrapreneurs, e.g., the employee of GE who is tasked with launching a new business. mentor VCs, e.g., most VCs.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Hearpreneur

MAY 15, 2019

After being laid-off (again), I started a sales consulting business helping tech start-ups build, grow, and coach their sales teams. We will be hiring people with mental and physical disabilities in the near future. I build social media platforms, help procure contracts, assist with infrastructure and more. 5- Two reasons.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO Entrepreneur CTO Hire LLC 122

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Tech Gadgets Mobile Enterprise GreenTech CrunchBase TechCrunch TV Disrupt SF More TechCrunch TV Beta Invites Crunchies Elevator Pitches Gillmor Gang Podcasts TechCrunch Europe TechCrunch Trends TechCrunch France TechCrunch Japan Whats Hot: Android Apple Facebook Google Microsoft Twitter Yahoo Zynga Subscribe: From Nothing To Something.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

Up and Running

MAY 23, 2016

If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. If you don’t yet have a team yet, list the roles you need to hire for. Broadly speaking, this action plan is going to be broken up into three sections: the testing plan, the execution plan, and the review section. The business model. or even be a U.S.

Software Review 74

Software Review Software Delaware Forecast 74

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Non-Technical Co-Founders Co-Founders Technical Co-founders Finding Co-Founders Startups & "How Important Are Ideas?" Developer, engineer, CTO, or technical co-founder? 24 Comments • Nov 8, 2010 I love this answer. Rockstar v.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

Duct Tape Marketing

AUGUST 10, 2017

We chat with them online but we don’t get to hang out with our customers that much except for once a year with our annual event, ONTRApalooza but we do get to hang out with our employees. The primary reason I have it so good is because I made a really extraordinary hire back in 2010 right after we started getting traction.

Software Review 36

Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software 36

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

We hired three guys from that batch and paid them in iPhones. Doubtful we’d have access to such a rich employee pool any other way. Lots of the attendees will be wearing suits for the first time––and hating it. Treat everyone you hire like a co-founder. It builds trust and earns buy-in from the people you hire.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

blog.expensify.com

APRIL 24, 2012

Update: The end is near, Expensify is hiring a.NET programmer! Or, rather, more offensively to Facebook and Google employees, less offensive to.NET developers, though the underlying message is the same.). As you might know, we’re hiring the best programmers in the world. Expensify Blog. Some additional comments at the end.

Java 107

Java PHP Software Review Coder 107

sivers.org

JUNE 25, 2010

Derek Sivers about me blog books email list contact How to hire a programmer to make your ideas happen 2010-06-19 Do you have an idea for a website, online business, or application, but need a programmer to turn that idea into reality? Say, “We are hiring a developer to create only the beginning of an application. Hire one from each.

CTO Hire 84

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 84

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Developers have worn the crown for the last 30 or more years in the technology industry - rightly. But in the world following Jonathan Ive, designers are finally getting their due. It is also true that open source and the commoditization of many technologies has put much more emphasis on experience.

Technical Review 51

Technical Review Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 51

Startup Lessons Learned

JANUARY 12, 2009

At IMVU, when wed hire a new engineer, we could get them to ship code to production on their first day, even if they had never programmed in PHP before. Which makes them exactly the kind of programmers companies should want to hire. In my role as a CTO, Ive always tried to choose the right tool for the right job. Nice article.

PHP 166

PHP Software Review Ruby San Francisco 166

Austin Startup

MAY 29, 2019

Their success is about execution in sales, services, and feature parity … and then eventually superiority (again, due to that single platform to rapidly evolve on advantage). There are other networking effects that we will be unleashing, both natural and technological, as we progress through our multi-year strategic plan.

Networking 48

Networking Fractional CTO CTO Hire B2C 48