SoCal CTO

MARCH 2, 2015

As the organizer of the LA CTO Forum , I get lots of inquiries by job seekers and people looking for CTO / VP Engineering talent. I’ve written quite a bit about aspects of this topic, especially from the perspective of startup founders looking for talent – you can find these in: Startup CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Los Angeles CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 150

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I received an inquiry from a reader of my blog and thought I would provide some thoughts, but would definitely welcome input: I am an unpaid CTO of a small startup. I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. Please let this be a lesson to everyone – founders and CTOs.

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 22, 2011

Todd Gitlin of Safire Partners was nice enough to compile some data on CTO Equity and Compensation at Venture Backed Companies for the LA CTO Forum and present last year. The data is a bit tough to deal with via a post, so I've shared it two ways: You can find a PDF with some analysis at: CTO Equity Compensation PDF.

CTO Hire 273

CTO Hire Equity Southern California France 273

SoCal CTO

APRIL 27, 2011

Several people have recently come to me to help them source and/or hire full-time CTOs for their startup having found me through my post that looks at: Startup CTO Salary and Equity Data. I'd suggest: Startup CTO or Developer , Startup Founder Developer Gap , Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO.

CTO Hire 225

CTO Hire Los Angeles Hiring Technical Review 225

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Did they really need a Startup CTO or Developer or both? Was it a case of needing Homework?

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

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. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

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. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. Level of responsibility and time allocated.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Founder Stock Technical Cofounder 261

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 1, 2023

You need to find the skills or experience you don’t have in business, technology, or money. Giving a cofounder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder. The CFO may have a major financial background, but might be a minority owner.

Technical Cofounder 247

Technical Cofounder Equity Distribution Cofounder 247

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.

Cap Table 133

Cap Table CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Cofounder 133

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." The first few people into a startup are on a spectrum of founder vs. early employee. Founders are likely not paid for a long time and have a sizeable equity percentage for early risk and having the concept.

Early Stage 391

Early Stage Equity CTO Hire Sweat Equity 391

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. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

I've talked about that in lots of other posts, so you can visit some of these to help determine what you specifically need: Startup CTO or Developer Startup Software Development – Do Your Homework Before You Develop Anything Key ingredients in the equation are: How complex is the system? Do you have dollars to pay for development?

Technical Cofounder 211

Technical Cofounder Cofounder CTO Hire Los Angeles 211

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

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.

Salary 198

Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 198

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.

Salary 175

Salary Equity San Francisco Dilution 175

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. Is this person taking a salary or not?

Cofounder 136

Cofounder Equity Founder Seed Stage 136

www.huffingtonpost.com

MAY 10, 2011

Ive occasionally worked with executive recruiters, for example in hiring a CTO for my first company, Eve.com. I was lucky to sign on as advisor and investor the founder of a very high-profile consumer Internet site who happens to also be a former engineer, who I will call Richard. This time, I decided to handle the process myself.

CTO 43

CTO CTO Hire PHP Cofounder 43

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. Giving a co-founder a salary won’t get you the “fire in the belly” you want.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 1, 2022

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will likely come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Stock Options 343

Stock Options Advisory Board Stock Startup 343

ReadWriteStart

JUNE 14, 2012

So many tech startups begin the same way: One founder, one dream and a plan to make it happen. She sold her first tech startup econfidant.com to a larger technology company. You will have the most chance for success by maximizing the number of founders with complementary skill sets. Don’t be fooled by titles.

Technical Review 159

Technical Review CTO Hire Software Review Startup 159

ReadWriteStart

JANUARY 16, 2020

Being relatively a new service trend in today’s tech-driven world, CTO-as-a-Service (CaaS) is notably gaining its momentum. Though CTO as a traditional full-time position exists for decades, some companies do not feel they need a technology executive. Ideal scenario assumes there’s a CTO in house. By referring to ?TO-as-a-Service

Fractional CTO 85

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 85

Both Sides of the Table

JANUARY 5, 2010

So we as VCs search for entrepreneurs/founders who have the whole package or as much of it as possible. They often make great team members such as head of products, CTO, head of sales, CFO, etc. Your financial risks of starting most technology companies these days are so low. It’s lost salary for a period of time.

Entrepreneur 293

Entrepreneur CTO Hire South America Salary 293

Feld Thoughts

SEPTEMBER 16, 2011

Now that Dick and Jane have added a CTO to SayAhh’s founding team, they’ve turned their full attention to working on their product. The largest expense a company usually has at this stage is salaries. However, Dick, Jane and Praveena have decided to initially forgo salaries which helps them conserve cash in the near term.

Balance Sheet 125

Balance Sheet Fractional CTO Burn Rate Salary 125

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2009

Soon after he was promoted to Senior Architect, our highest role without being CTO. We told him we’d file all the legal papers, pay for his move and normalize his salary with San Francisco. When we started our next company, Koral, Ryan was a co-founder. I knew that meant he wouldn’t come back. Ryan accepted.

San Francisco 322

San Francisco South Africa Fractional CTO CTO Hire 322

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 25, 2019

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will likely come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Equity 237

Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 237

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 5, 2014

There are those amongst us the are willing to abandon the comforts of a job with a salary and perhaps the prestige of being able to tell family members, loved ones and friends that “I work for Google, Goldman Sachs, Apple, FedEx, Verizon or Coca Cola” and instead put out selves out there to potentially look stupid one day.

Technical Review 417

Technical Review South Korea San Francisco Software Review 417

The Next Web

DECEMBER 2, 2013

Founder Kevin Systrom launched Instagram with 25,000 beta users on October 6, 2010; two years later, the app continues to see massive growth, recently reporting 150 million active users. Ben Schippers is the co-founder of HappyFunCorp , a Web development company that has built sites for TeePublic , Of A Kind , Postography and Yeah TV! “If

Cost 168

Cost San Francisco New York City Ruby 168

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

I guess it should not be a surprise that Founders have lots of challenges working with developers. Challenges I started by asking the founders in the room to tell me some of the challenges they have working with developers. Developers (and Founders) are challenged to know how much is okay in terms of bugs.

Technical Cofounder 280

Technical Cofounder Developer Fractional CTO CTO Hire 280

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 24, 2017

Why do these founders get to stay around? Because the balance of power has dramatically shifted from investors to founders. Technology cycles have become a treadmill, and for startups to survive they need to be on a continuous innovation cycle. VCs competing for unicorn investments have given founders control of the board.

Founder 245

Founder Technical Review CTO Hire IPO 245

This is going to be BIG.

JANUARY 2, 2011

Plus, my fear is that there are barriers in those areas that may be difficult to scale—namely salary and lifestyle. If you’ve already got someone that optimized for making the most annual salary, joining a startup might be a difficult sell. Find a small group of technical advisors to oversee syllabus creation, program structure, etc.

Developer 117

Developer New York City Java CPA 117

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 21, 2017

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will likely come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Stock 140

Stock Stock Options Advisory Board Startup 140

Scalable Startup

JUNE 21, 2011

Describing this other person variously as a co-founder, partner, CTO, and collaborator, the focus has been on someone with the right combination of technical experience/excellence, mutual chemistry, plus the right timing and inclination in their lives to do this. That’s not the sentiment of most CTO-types I talk to.

Cofounder 20

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Los Angeles 20

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 17, 2013

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Stock Options 224

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 224

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 22, 2012

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Stock Options 230

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 230

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 24, 2011

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package, stock plus salary.

Equity 234

Equity Stock Options Advisory Board Stock 234

Startup Professionals Musings

MARCH 29, 2015

CEO brought in to replace the founder, 5 - 10% CTO, CFO, VP of Marketing or Sales, 1.5 - 3% Chief Engineer or Architect, 1 - 1.5% Offers near the high end of a range will likely come with a lower cash salary, maybe even 50% of the going rate. Your compensation is the total package of stock plus salary plus benefits.

Stock Options 120

Stock Options Stock Advisory Board Startup 120

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

To be clear, these are hires we are talking about, not co-founders. Co-founders are an entirely different discussion and I am not talking about them in this post. Then you multiply the employee's base salary by the multiplier to get to a dollar value of equity. Grants for CEOs and COOs should and will be made by the Board.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64