Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 15, 2014

Much has been written about when it is time to hire a “professional CEO” to run a startup company and of course that has long been a norm in Silicon Valley when founders find that their inexperience may be a limiting factor in company growth ( know as the Peter Principle ). I like technical founders so this wasn’t an issue.

Founder 309

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YoungUpstarts

JUNE 18, 2019

by Saumya Bhatnagar, CTO and Co-founder of InvolveSoft. A study shows that female founders fear that they are less capable of running a business than men, and therefore, fear that they will lapse into chaos. Over the years, the rapid growth of startup networks is seen in almost every sector. Dealing With The Fear of Failure.

Technical Review 113

Technical Review Founder United States Cofounder 113

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 25, 2018

A few weeks ago I shared some important leadership lessons from Stewart Butterfield , including investing in your own growth to make sure that the founder scales as fast as the company. Growing with your start-up can be a very tough undertaking for a founder. There’s typically little choice for a founder CEO.

Part-Time VPE 258

Part-Time VPE Management CTO Hire San Francisco 258

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 2, 2011

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. The vesting schedule protects each of the co-founders in case one gets hit by a bus or decides to drop the project after a short period of time. Time to update the cap table.

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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? So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering.

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mashable.com

MAY 9, 2011

This is especially true when it comes to tech companies hiring the wrong chief technology officer. Today, CTOs are multi-taskers that aren’t just coders locked in some basement — they play a vital role in a tech company’s strategic plan and growth. Zach Cutler , The Cutler Group.

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CTO Hire Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review 73

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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Metrics Founder CTO Hire Technical Review 120

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

For example: Mitch Kapor was a founder of Lotus. As the emeritus Chief Technology Officer of the United States, he still connects government and Silicon Valley. He’s a founder of Andreessen Horowitz, which has backed Facebook, Skype, Jawbone, and dozens of other companies whose products you use.

Lean 165

Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165

Business Plan Blog

AUGUST 20, 2013

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. In order to be a successful tech startup, the team must consist of a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) level member to help with the technology plan.

CTO Hire 55

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Architecture Cofounder 55

Duct Tape Marketing

JANUARY 19, 2024

Despite not going to university, Ash became a serial tech founder and the first marketing director of a unicorn startup – Just Eat). Kenneth Wenger – Unveiling the Future of AI Kenneth Wenger is an author, a research scholar at Toronto Metropolitan University, and CTO of Squint AI Inc. Click here to listen to the episode.

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Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Marketing 77

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

You should also focus heavily on his or her former employees. I would take a strong employee referral from an existing employee I trust 10x over a person more qualified on paper (given similar skill levels). Many teams pay bonuses to employees who bring in people they know. In many ways that can be way more telling.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

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.

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CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Feld Thoughts

MARCH 13, 2020

, we are strongly encouraging the majority of our workers to work from home as soon as possible, leaving behind the minimum possible in-office presence. we are restricting work travel by our employees, both domestically and internationally.

Colorado 168

Colorado Fractional CTO Silicon Valley Cofounder 168

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

Austin Startup

OCTOBER 11, 2021

We’re looking to triple the size of our engineering and product team within the next year,” said Sandy Jen, co-founder and chief technology officer for Honor. “We In the coming years, this technology will open a channel to allow seniors more streamlined access to the products and services they need at home?—?creating

Technical Review 62

Technical Review Engineer Finance Technology 62

The Next Web

NOVEMBER 20, 2013

With all other things equal, that means that a 50/50 split between two co-founders (evenly split if there are more than two), or a 66/33 split based on the premium for coming up with the original idea, and for starting the initial development efforts and sourcing the original team. Whose idea was it? How important is this person’s role?

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

In fact, I would broaden the definition of partner from co-founder to “business partner.” The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO. The challenge is to recognize and recruit that ideal partner match early with minimal cost and risk.

Partner 140

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

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.”

Partner 258

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Equity 258

blog.chrisomeara.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Chris OMeara Main | Probing Code Quality » 01/31/2010 Startup CTO: Could It Work? A CEO friend of mine recently asked my opinion about Tony Karrers Startup CTO or Developer article. I think the part time CTO could work. They tend to know where to find good help in terms of employees and consultants.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup Cofounder 40

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. You can click on the filters such as Founder Status (#3) and Job Title (#4) to filter to that particular data. Most non-founders have less than 2%.

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Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 198

devver.wordpress.com

NOVEMBER 9, 2010

Boulder CTO December Lunch with Tim Wolters with 5 comments The Boulder CTO Lunch meets once a month with a guest speaker and covers topics and questions that startup CTOs should find interesting. The Role As a CTO, you paint a landscape of the product and market. There are two kinds of CTOs: tactical and visionary.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Part-Time VPE Architecture Ruby 40

SoCal CTO

MAY 10, 2011

A long-time friend and colleague, Steve Wexler, who is great at visualization took my Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data and produced a really need interactive visualization via Tableau. You can click on the filters such as Founder Status (#3) and Job Title (#4) to filter to that particular data. Most non-founders have less than 2%.

Salary 175

Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 175

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 13, 2014

Most people think that the Peter Principle (employee rises to his level of incompetence) only applies to large organizations. I see startup founders and managers who are stalled transplants from large organizations, as well as highly-capable technologists trying to start and run a business for the first time.

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Non-Compete Startup Management Founder 248

View from Seed

JULY 31, 2014

When the purchasing decisions for work software can be made bottoms-up at the individual or group level, rather than top-down from management, committee, or a CIO/CTO’s office away from the front line of the business, the product offering and entire software business can be radically different.

Seed Stage 272

Seed Stage B2C Technical Review Disintermediation 272

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.” Photo of Chairman of Google Eric Schmidt with Sergey Brin and Larry Page via Wikipedia. No historical baggage.

Partner 179

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 179

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.”

Partner 240

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 240

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 17, 2013

CTO, VP of HR) in the customer organization. Startups that succeed with this approach tend to have founders with deep connections in the industry they serve, and often previously worked for one of the large incumbents in the market. In these cases, employees feel a particular pain point and find a solution to address it.

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Fractional CTO Software Review Viral Sales Cycle 154

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In a startup, that’s your job as founder, and it’s a job you can’t afford to delegate. Chief Diversity Officer.

CTO Hire 252

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 252

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

A Part-Time CTO Technology. Unless you’re fortunate to have one or more technical founders, you’ll quickly be faced with this simple question: Do we hack out a prototype somehow, find a developer or outsource the development? In the case of the latter, this keeps your staff and employee commitments down.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

He has grown our US operations from 1 employee (him) to a global organization of 75 employees that will finish the year with 8-digit revenues (90+% recurring) and more than 350% year-over-year growth. It consists of a highly intelligent and opinionated founder – Nick Halstead. Wallflower – yours truly.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Feld Thoughts

OCTOBER 7, 2013

The picture to the left is of Ryan Martens, Rally’s founder and CTO, giving Josie Health, the CEO of The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County , a check for $676,000. He wanted to build a sense of corporate social responsibility into Rally from day one.

Community 182

Community Colorado Common Stock Equity 182

View from Seed

DECEMBER 3, 2015

(Editor’s note: The Alliance was written by LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. The Alliance identifies different “tours of duty” an employee/employer can embark on based on the motivators of the employee. We heard the founding story of LinkedIn in episode 2 of the NextView podcast, Traction.

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CTO Hire Retention Marketing Engineer 120

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

What gets lost when a large company looks at the rationale for an acquisition (IP, team, product, users) is that startups are run by founders searching for a business model. And as part of their transition to predictable processes, their founders may or may not still be at the helm. Predicting Success or Failure of an Acquisition.

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Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

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.”

Partner 230

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 230

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. Don’t be fooled by titles.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 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!

Silicon Valley 123

Silicon Valley CTO Hire Continuous Deployment Cofounder 123

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). In a startup, that’s your job as founder, and it’s a job you can’t afford to delegate. Chief Diversity Officer.

CTO Hire 244

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 244