Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 23, 2012

Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. This means they will be metered out month-by-month, and a partner who changes his mind or defects early will not walk away with half the company.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

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. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 238

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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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SoCal CTO

MAY 14, 2012

The crowd of more than 1,500 spilled out into hallways, and would-be investors were turned away from the doors, as a crush of entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, wanna-be entrepreneurs, and others looked to be part of the surge of startups emerging in Los Angeles. At the event, the enthusiasm for startups was palpable.

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www.bothsidesofthetable.com

MAY 13, 2012

Entrepreneur DNA. Entrepreneur turned VC. Want to Know Difference Between a CTO and a VP of Engineering? Because more technology people probably read startup blogs I’m guessing this post will come under more scrutiny. I’ve heard both arguments from CTO’s. Start-up Advice. Raising Venture Capital.

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Hunter Walker

FEBRUARY 9, 2023

What To Look For When Reference Checking Polarizing Entrepreneurs There are certain words I don’t want to hear when doing backchannel references on a startup CEO. If you combine this with self-awareness, you get a powerful combination for an early stage CEO. Sketchy would be one. Unmotivated another.

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rapidrollout.wordpress.com

JANUARY 15, 2011

Web Startup Lessons Advice from a CTO and Entrepreneur Home About Startup Advice: When to Use a Consulting CTO There are not many to be found. Most likely, this is a person who is a serial entrepreneur and was the chief technology officer for two or more web startups. .&#

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Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Many entrepreneurs are paranoid about the partnership approach, and think that M&A is only an alternative for large companies who are flush with cash. Partial acquisition.

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. On the one hand, an entrepreneur should not be overly paranoid and should know the ropes that VCs and other professional investors generally will not sign NDAs to see the concept or a prototype--and even if they did, it would not provide much protection.

Management 150

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YoungUpstarts

MAY 21, 2020

Like most entrepreneurs, you’ve probably mapped out the business plan, dreamed up the layout and you’re already snapping up domains and emailing developers with your plan. You envision your business as the next Uber or Spotify, yourself as the next Steve Jobs or Elon Musk, reaching that prestigious ‘unicorn’ startup status in record time.

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Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

Every entrepreneur tries to maximize his startup growth by building and selling more product and services for the widest geographic area that he can support. Many entrepreneurs are paranoid about the partnership approach, and think that M&A is only an alternative for large companies who are flush with cash. Partial acquisition.

CTO Hire 229

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Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Because these considerations can be quite complex, very emotional and have long-term implications, smart entrepreneurs don’t hesitate to get some legal advice at this early stage, in drawing up an agreement document to be signed by each of the co-founders. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Cofounder 261

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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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View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 4, 2018

It occurred to me that although we mentioned our new thematic approach when we raised our last fund in 2017, we haven’t really shared a broader manifesto about how we are approaching the early stage market. It’s been an interesting several years in the early stage venture eco-system, and the sands have shifted considerably.

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SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2011

" Today I had two conversations with early stage startups (see Free CTO Consulting ). Vision Synching in a Lean Startup The Fallacy of Customer Development Entrepreneurs, Lower Investors’ Risk by Validating your Start-up Company’s Business Proposition Lessons Learned: What is customer development?

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Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

I recently wrote a post about why I didn’t think early-stage startups should have COOs. I’d say about 80% of the experienced entrepreneurs & VCs I know privately agreed with me. I usually encourage people to think about titles like, “Founder & CTO&# or “Founder & VP Marketing.&#.

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

A good early-stage CEO needs to be accessible, to be accountable for producing results and should be establishing the cultural norms of the company through direct leadership at all levels. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

He left out capital sources, but it's still a pretty succinct list of the types of people / communication you should be having early stage. Startups that come to me and ask me to sign an NDA in order to get Free Startup CTO Consulting really are missing it. You need all of these people to bake the cake. What is Stealth?

NDA 211

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SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

He left out capital sources, but it's still a pretty succinct list of the types of people / communication you should be having early stage. Startups that come to me and ask me to sign an NDA in order to get Free Startup CTO Consulting really are missing it. You need all of these people to bake the cake. What is Stealth?

NDA 198

NDA Stealth Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement 198

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. You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 120

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g.,

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Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

CEO, VP Products and CTO must all be in the physical location. I don’t like distributed development teams in early stage businesses. Outsourcing early often happens when you have non-technical founders who don’t know how to get code out the door. I prefer that early stage companies not offshore development.

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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?

Venture Capital 150

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View from Seed

MAY 11, 2016

However, I find that none of this is really the case, and entrepreneurs face especially tough challenges in the very beginning of their process of finding that second company to start. But some of the most successful serial entrepreneurs realize they have unfair advantages in markets they know and just keep coming back (e.g.,

Founder 159

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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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ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Dr. Marcos Athanasoulis, CTO of Harvard Medical School discussed this idea with me recently. An entrepreneur should pick this one up ASAP. Michael Aginsky, CTO of Gibbons P.C. This is an open opportunity for an entrepreneur to build a custom solution. For you, readers, here they are: Sponsor.

Cloud 117

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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.

Los Angeles 150

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Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Entrepreneurs are supposed to have insights that others don’t have and we’re supposed to be good judges about which entrepreneurs and executives have both the most clever ideas and the right skill sets to do transformational things against all odds. It’s the executives who trust you to join the early-stage startups you’ve funded.

Venture Capital 150

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Startup Professionals Musings

NOVEMBER 8, 2010

Providing the major funding source for an early-stage startup is a totally different dimension, but it usually trumps all the items above in demanding some equity. This means they will be metered out month-by-month, and a partner who changes his mind or defects early will not walk away with half the company. Marty Zwilling.

Equity 228

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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.

Technical Cofounder 150

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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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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. They have a related post: Designing startup metrics to drive successful behavior | For Entrepreneurs , but I think that looking at my Startup Metrics post provides a bit broader set of metrics to consider.

Acquisition 150

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ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

Most businesses stay that way - there are many more solo entrepreneurs than business owners with employees. If a candidate for your technical lead was a CTO at a big company, for example, but he or she says they want to manage and not code, then he or she is not the right fit for an early-stage startup].

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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.

Technical Cofounder 150

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, March 13, 2007 8 Ways the Internet has Changed Software Marketing Great post - 8 Ways The Internet Changed Software Marketing - is an interesting take on how different it is these days to market software. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. Good stuff.

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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 28, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Wednesday, February 28, 2007 Google Maps Mobile I recently downloaded Google Maps Mobile for my Treo. 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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SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Sunday, February 25, 2007 Interesting Model for University President Saw a post by Paul Kedrosky pointing us to Graeme Thickins on How Stanford Does It. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO. He has been the CTO for several start-ups, most notably eHarmony.

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