Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 14, 2017

LESSON #1: Equip your business with a portfolio map and a 21st century org chart. 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?” . … You need a pipeline of tested and validated ideas,” Alex said.

Lean 245

Lean Startup CTO Hire Cofounder 245

YoungUpstarts

JULY 28, 2019

by Ekim Saribardak, CTO of Rewire Security. Businesses that don’t evolve to adapt to new operational challenges will be left behind in today’s fast-paced world. A growing number of business owners and fleet managers are transitioning to GPS-based vehicle tracking systems to help overcome their operational challenges.

Operations 140

Operations Government Software Demand 140

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. Panel: Cary Davis , Managing Director, Warburg Pincus, Moderator: Ben Fried, Chief Information Officer, Google, runs in-house technology. 15 yrs at MS.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Azure 122

konamoxt.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

January 21, 2009 Why Your Startup Can’t Afford To NOT Hire a CTO As I mentioned in my last post, one of the many things I do as an entrepreneur is to advise other start up companies. One of the common requests I get as an adviser is the help interview and vet potential CTO candidates. So what are you to do?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire CTO Hiring Engineer 40

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

It’s easy to think the role of a VC is to have strong opinions about markets, trends, tech dynamics and so forth. 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.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

Continuing my series of posts that I’ve been collecting that live at the intersection of Startups and being a Startup CTO : Startup CTO Top 30 Posts for April 16 Great Startup Posts from March here are the top posts from May 2010. If you can just be friendly enough and get your users to party with you, the rest is really easy.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

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. VCs crave the ability to help portfolio companies. You may have an opinion on your market-entry strategy for Europe.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Up and Running

DECEMBER 27, 2018

Does it do its job better than existing products in the market? Lack of resources or funding won’t stop your invention from going to market. It has more than 40,000 patents in its portfolio. Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft and co-founder of Intellectual Ventures. Can you sell it at a competitive price?

Intellectual Property 93

Intellectual Property Technical Review Due Diligence Cofounder 93

Gust

OCTOBER 20, 2011

Active angels invest in a diversified portfolio of 10 or more companies, usually spreading their investments over a few years. In the end, such a portfolio might yield the angel investor a total return on investment of 25% per year or more. Angels typically invest in companies operating in industry sectors with which they are familiar.

Valuation 146

Valuation Pre-Money Valuation Intellectual Property Technical Review 146

Rob Go

SEPTEMBER 9, 2013

MITX : Non-profit trade association hosting many events focused on digital marketing and internet business. Mass TLC Unconference: Large annual conference put on by the MA Technology Leadership Council. link] – Not a meetup, but a great mentorship program started by serial CTO Sean Lindsay. Next major event? Future M on Oct 16.

Boston 71

Boston Technical Review Community Cofounder 71

View from Seed

JULY 24, 2015

Some say it’s a marketing and story-telling problem. Still others point to the collective sensibility and logic of New Englanders as an operating philosophy. Half our portfolio is consumer. Talking design was Brian Kalma, design chief at Blade, a startup foundry launched by Paul English, former co-founder/CTO of Kayak.

Boston 120

Boston Cofounder B2C PR 120

Rob Go

DECEMBER 11, 2013

Every entrepreneur can look on LinkedIN and see that the amazing operating experience you claim to have was acquired in 1 summer internship 2 years ago. Associates can really help portfolio companies. You also are probably not going to be the person that brings on the SVP of sales for a series B company, or their next CTO.

CTO Hire 68

CTO Hire Partner Software Developers Software Development 68

VC Cafe

MARCH 17, 2023

Use cases for Generative AI in gaming ( click to download ) The landscape of generative AI startups in gaming is rapidly evolving The first market map of generative AI in gaming was published by the A16Z gaming fund in November and the team published an updated version today. Let’s dive in. The landscape today includes 57 startups.

Generative AI 195

Generative AI Stealth IP San Francisco 195

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

portfolio operator VCs, e.g., Andreessen Horowitz, ff Venture Capital, First Round Capital, Google Ventures. They’re well aware of the conventional VC bias against funding companies which externally develop their technology, but they do have relevant skills. Our MVPs take anywhere from 6-10 weeks to get to market.

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

Seeing Both Sides

JULY 13, 2011

There has been a recent dialog around a theme I'll call "hacking the corporation" - creating novel approaches to building young companies, particularly when they are in their formative start-up stage and pre-product market fit. I'd like to submit another item to add to the "hacking the corporation" punchlist: elimnating titles.

CTO Hire 54

CTO Hire Cofounder Portfolio Founder 54

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. Or it can be a public market comp analysis. The third bracket are employees who are in the key functions like engineering, product, marketing, etc. Let's say the number is $25mm.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Kapor Capital’s expansive portfolio includes Bit.ly Gordon spent 10 years as chief creative officer at EA and has an active interest in console and MMORPG games (some of which he helped create). Gordon is also operating director of Zynga and director at Amazon, both sFund partners.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

David Teten

FEBRUARY 3, 2013

Smedley was doing everything he could to discourage folks entering the market.”. This has prompted some to move their entire operations offshore to try and avoid the prying hands of local government agencies. In fact, it was only getting /a lot/ easier and lest costly.

Government 114

Government Security Intellectual Property Offshore 114

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. Last night at the NY Tech Meetup, John Britton of our portfolio company Twilio showed how it is done. m the f%*kin’ boss.”.

Startup 191

Startup CTO Hire Cofounder Venture Capital 191