View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Depending on the composition of the founding team, you might or might not have near-term holes in certain functions at the exec level – e.g. you’ll most likely need to bring on a CTO/VP of Engineering shortly after the seed round if you don’t have a technical co-founder. The “product roadmap”.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

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. The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO.

Cofounder 221

Cofounder Software Review CTO Hire Founder 221

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

Finance and budgeting. What does a CTO do? Operations and Manufacturing. 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. Let the Games Begin!

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Not because they’re all operating in stealth or pre-product – in fact some already are earning $1m+ in revenue per annum. Party rounds blew up on a number of startups who found it difficult to get ongoing operational support from investors who didn’t have time or inclination to lean in.

Technical Review 117

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 117

The Startup Magazine

AUGUST 28, 2019

The bulk is usually run by technology geeks who don’t have a real understanding of how to build and operate a business. Blockdraws Technologies COO, Konstantinos Despotakis is a former online casino CEO and also a former Deputy Director of Compliance at the AGCC. Blockchain technologies are still maturing.

Open Source 103

Open Source CTO Hire Fractional CTO Algorithm 103

Feld Thoughts

JUNE 9, 2021

” So for the deal, investors on both sides converted to common, we split the combined company 55/45, Matt became CEO, and Greg led a new Series A financing into the combined company. .” I answered, “Deal.” Twenty years later, we sold the business, a $100 million, profitable company, to Validity. Matt was still CEO.

Fractional CTO 70

Fractional CTO Cofounder Startup Lead Investor 70

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

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. The reason is that good attributes apply equally well to “external” partners, as they do to internal partners, like a co-founder or CTO.

Partner 140

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Replacing the founder when the company needed to scale was almost standard operating procedure. If the founder was lucky, he got to stay as chairman or CTO. To continually innovate, companies need to operate at startup speed and cycle time much longer their 20th century counterparts did. The founders. The founders.

Founder 269

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 269

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on. But I knew that to be a good decision maker I needed first hand knowledge rather than just a summary from my CTO. But as a CEO you can’t rely solely on this information.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

David Teten

JUNE 6, 2011

My rough notes follow: Mike Dubno , CIO, Global Markets and Research Technology & Operations, Bank of America. Previously CTO, Goldman Sachs. Very enthusiastic about the potential for the NY tech ecosystem, leveraging our strength in finance. Introductory remarks. Maria Gotsch. Formerly MS IT department. 15 yrs at MS.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Azure 122

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

Duct Tape Marketing

MAY 4, 2022

He’s the host of the Second in Command: The Chief Behind the Chief podcast, where he interviews COOs and other seconds to share their insights with his listeners. Key Takeaway: The Chief Operating Officer is the second in command to the CEO – they’re the go-to person that should be running the business.

CTO 79

CTO Cofounder Networking Operations 79

Startup Lessons Learned

FEBRUARY 5, 2013

It can be difficult to locate information about government assistance programs or find and complete the correct forms for taxes or business operations. design, build, operate/use, maintain, and service). In particular, small businesses and exporters have a fundamental problem navigating the Federal Government’s myriad resources.

Fractional CTO 158

Fractional CTO Government Technical Review Analytics 158

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

Think about how profound a difference adding Sheryl Sandberg early at Facebook was to Mark Zuckerberg and knowing that he should stay in charge of product and strategy while she ran operations. Importantly, we recently announced a $30 million financing that gives us the resources we need to build a global enterprise software company.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

YoungUpstarts

JULY 30, 2015

Micro-multinationals enjoy advantages that are unavailable to SMEs operating in a single market, such as the ability to exploit global variations in knowledge, skills, and labor costs [9]. They can operate their businesses around the world and around the clock across multiple time-zones [10]. In Asia, China provides a case in point.

Dominican Republic 100

Dominican Republic Global San Francisco Arizona 100

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2017

For example, if a chief executive officer manages the daily operation, a chief entrepreneur heads up innovation efforts. And the chief entrepreneur has a staff of chief portfolio manager, chief venture capitalist, and chief risk officer, right? “So LESSON #2: Forget innovation.

Lean 245

Lean Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 245

Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

The constraint between good ideas and growth operates in both directions. It encourages a bit too much FOMO (fear of missing out) and over-valuation in companies and a desire to do huge financing rounds to be perceived as the “knock-out winner.” Ryan Lissack is the CTO of Maker Studios. Growth, again.

Silicon Valley 390

Silicon Valley Venture Capital Startup Technical Review 390

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. What Rob wrote in his post is right. Rob is one of the most driven and successful CEOs I work with.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 3, 2010

Some great content around the intersection of startups and being a Startup CTO in June this year. This continues my series of posts: Top 30 Startup Posts in June 2010 Top 29 Startup Posts May 2010 Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March The following are the top items based on social signals.

Software Review 217

Software Review Startup Venture Capital Technical Review 217

www.entrepreneur.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Entrepreneur Homepage Startups Starting a Business Home How-To Guides Startup Basics Business Ideas Business Planning Startup Financing Success Stories Home-Based Business Starting a Business Play Video How to Take a New Product from Just an Idea to a Business (Video). Financing Some Jobs Act Proposals Make Headway. More in Financing.

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Austin Startup

NOVEMBER 1, 2017

The Financier (Finance Manager): Assesses the viability & profitability of the business and product — This is vital when looking for investors. Additionally, your Finance Manager should understand the relationship between data, decisions, and people. Find someone who complements your skill-set and experience.

Software Review 54

Software Review Technical Review CTO Hire San Antonio 54

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc. This leaves the CTO / Senior Architect to focus on product development and managing the recently hired engineers. Hire based on functionality and avoid having too many C’s. Don’t make everyone a founder.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

ConversionXL

MARCH 10, 2021

Working to automate user provisioning can help eliminate daunting and time-consuming onboarding operations like the example above. If your organization uses ADManager Plus, for example, you can automatically provision accounts in AD, Exchange, Office 365, Skype for Business, as well as G Suite.

CTO Hire 138

CTO Hire Cloud Software Review Employee 138

VC Cafe

FEBRUARY 15, 2017

Voyager’s cognitive-computing, deep-insights platform assesses billions of publicly available, unstructured data points to provide insights for its clients in finance, retail and consulting. Chen Zamir is the company’s CTO and former Intelligence officer in the IDF as well as Paypal risk manager.

Artificial Inteligence 122

Artificial Inteligence Technical Review Startup 122

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

But it’s a very challenging question to answer because what it would cost to build is a small number while operational costs are enormous.”. Suddenly, those multi-million dollar financing rounds that startups raise don’t seem so outrageous! Others would say one million or a much bigger number. 4) WhatsApp.

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 8, 2010

August was a slow month in terms of traffic and I was away for a lot of the month, but there were some really great posts at the intersection of startups, technology, product and being a Startup CTO. Paul Graham kicked it off by noting that all the financings in the recent YC batch were converts. m the f%*kin’ boss.”.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191

Austin Startup

FEBRUARY 5, 2018

A finalist in Payment and FinTech Technology category, Pawame is lighting up rural communities in Africa with clean, affordable and reliable solar home systems. Turkana is home to Kakuma refugee camp, one of the largest refugee camps in the world, with over 200,000 residents and where we have been operating since October.

Africa 48

Africa Kenya Startup CTO Hire 48

www.inc.com

SEPTEMBER 24, 2011

Technology | Thursdays. Finance | Tuesdays. Financing a Small Business. Office and Operations. Financing A Small Business. Personal Finance. We had a rough time early on," says Parker, president and chief technology officer of Roving Software Inc. , Start-up | Mondays. Franchises.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Equity Iowa Technical Cofounder 40

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

link] – Not a meetup, but a great mentorship program started by serial CTO Sean Lindsay. Dog Patch Labs – Shared workspace operated by Polaris Ventures. Not Boston focused, but definitely follow his reports of PE and VC financings and the state of the venture market. @danprimack. Coworking Spaces and Accelerators.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Once you have assembled a core team that is operating the business, you need to move from art to science in terms of granting employee equity. This "best value" can be the valuation on the last round of financing. To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Or it can be a public market comp analysis.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 3, 2015

by Tom Britton, co-founder & CTO at SyndicateRoom.com. Your first investors can be your most valuable assets so when looking to raise finance you should always look beyond the capital to what else the angel can bring to your business. One who gets what you do and the environment in which you are operating.

Angel Investor 100

Angel Investor Early Stage Due Diligence Cofounder 100

Hearpreneur

MAY 15, 2019

From a young age, I watched him start a company from scratch and build it to a NASDAQ company operating in many countries. At my previous position as a Strategist at Disney, I was tasked with leading undergraduate recruiting efforts for the Global Development and Corporate Finance teams. Photo Credit: Graham Beck.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO Entrepreneur CTO Hire LLC 122

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 19, 2009

Another called Parker Harris, the co-founder and CTO. I look for firms in which some of the partners (my partner) have operational experience and know what it’s like to wake up every day and be an entrepreneur. In case VC’s haven’t figured this out yet, shit rolls downhill. I think good VC’s really do make a difference.

Venture Capital 274

Venture Capital Term Sheet San Diego Viral 274

Feld Thoughts

JANUARY 13, 2017

The focus of each person is on a specific functional area (finance, marketing, sales) and traditionally scoped. Naturally, you will have a product or engineering leader for Product, you will have a sales, marketing, or operations leader for Customer, and you will have a finance or admin leader for Company.

Leadership 70

Leadership Engineer Finance Sales 70

Startup Lessons Learned

JULY 25, 2013

Todd Park, the nation’s Chief Technology Officer, cheerfully admitted as much when he spoke at Lean Startup last year. He described a dizzying array of initiatives in a range of fields—health, energy, education, public safety, finance and non-profits. Could anything be less like a startup than the federal government?

Lean 167

Lean Ghana Startup Government 167

This is going to be BIG.

APRIL 27, 2010

I’ll be doing the same thing with Online Marketing school, CTO school, and there’s even been some rumblings about UX school. Teach ‘em Finance and Chase or Accenture will come and pick ‘em up 30 at a time. No revenues, no costs. Bo from RoseTech even volunteered to videotape the sessions. It was easy peasy.

New York 132

New York CTO Hire Technical Review New York City 132

Up and Running

SEPTEMBER 5, 2017

I don’t know how it operates behind closed doors. In a lot of the industries in which I ended up launching companies, there was a pre-existing profile of what a successful entrepreneur should look like—typically a young, white male with a technical, finance, or political background,” says Aguirre de Carcer. And if I tried to find out?

Venture Capital 82

Venture Capital Lean Cofounder Technical Review 82