SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? My basic claim is that you MUST HAVE LOTS OF EARLY CONVERSATIONS. Lots of thoughts here. But let's leave that aside for a minute.

NDA 211

NDA Stealth Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement 211

SoCal CTO

AUGUST 4, 2011

Almost every day I'm talking to early stage startup founders (see Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions ) about what they plan to do. Think of these as the big upfront questions: Who are the customers? SEO for Startups )? What are your key Startup Metrics ? Tell me about the business.

Developer 384

Developer Founder Viral Oauth 384

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

One of the readers asked my opinion around sharing your startup concept: My first question has always been - how do you protect your idea while shopping around for feedback, partners, developers, etc.? My basic claim is that you MUST HAVE LOTS OF EARLY CONVERSATIONS. Lots of thoughts here. But let's leave that aside for a minute.

NDA 198

NDA Stealth Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement 198

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

www.bothsidesofthetable.com

MAY 13, 2012

Want to Know Difference Between a CTO and a VP of Engineering? I recently did a post for startups on understanding sales people. A few people asked me to try and define the perfect startup organization chart. But I do have more insight into understanding your startup team. Every great tech startup needs one.

Fractional VPE 89

Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE Fractional CTO CTO Hire 89

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

Both Sides of the Table

OCTOBER 11, 2016

We then help surround founders with other talent who want to join important causes but don’t have the startup idea themselves. It’s rare to find extraordinarily talented individuals who are natural leaders and who are driven to succeed and who have a passion for startups so when you do you work hard to find opportunities for them.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Fractional CTO Cofounder Early Stage 150

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 20, 2016

The emails I’m highlighting here are easy to set up and pack a punch – ideal for early-stage products. Convert more trials into paying customers with trial extension emails. Ideally, you (/your app) realize on day 15 that Bob is failing in his trial, e.g. by comparing their usage of the app to successful customers.

Early Stage 27

Early Stage Email Fractional CTO Churn Rate 27

Software By Rob

DECEMBER 20, 2016

The emails I’m highlighting here are easy to set up and pack a punch – ideal for early-stage products. Convert more trials into paying customers with trial extension emails. Ideally, you (/your app) realize on day 15 that Bob is failing in his trial, e.g. by comparing their usage of the app to successful customers.

Early Stage 27

Early Stage Email Fractional CTO Churn Rate 27

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Ask for short conference calls.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CIO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

Common revenue streams are consulting, training, support, customization, upgraded versions for corporate applications, etc. 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? .

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

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.

Fractional CTO 85

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Part-Time VPE 85

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

My first job out of school was at one of the early bioinformatics companies in Silicon Valley, working as the head of technical services. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. Earlier this year I founded a new startup called KlickFu.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 18, 2010

Vince: I’m an author, speaker and management consultant with a special expertise in online media sales. I started out as screenwriter, went into local television, ran ad sales in the west for AOL and joined Facebook in the companies very early days. Our current focus is Actors and Actresses and we are moving into other verticals.

Los Angeles 225

Los Angeles Revenue Southern California Social Network 225

ReadWriteStart

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

Dr. Marcos Athanasoulis, CTO of Harvard Medical School discussed this idea with me recently. Michael Aginsky, CTO of Gibbons P.C. This is an open opportunity for an entrepreneur to build a custom solution. Today, the telecom industry charges customers based on fixed price business models for data services.

Cloud 117

Cloud Fractional CTO Entrepreneur Bandwidth 117

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). Startup Basics Does College Matter for Entrepreneurs?

Sweat Equity 55

Sweat Equity Equity Fractional CTO CTO 55

Mucker Lab

APRIL 6, 2023

Hila Qu joined Mucker’s Tony Yang for an Ask-Me-Anything (AMA) conversation about Product-Led Growth (PLG) for Startups to kickoff the 2023 Mucker Growth Series. Hila Qu has been the Head of Growth or VP of Growth at a number of different companies and startups, most notably Acorns and GitLab. That is a natural hurdle for PLG motion.

Product 78

Product CTO Hire Startup Fractional CTO 78

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 11, 2009

She is a go to person for me when I have questions around technology or early stage marketing and branding. We do a lot of B2B and also have an "Early Stage Branding" practice for technology startups. I'm married to Mike Freehling , M&A and financial management consultant.

Early Stage 150

Early Stage Southern California Los Angeles Marketing 150

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 5, 2009

I had last been in Chapel Hill on a winter’s day in 1986, traveling with the VP of Sales of our new supercomputer startup, Ardent. It was my ex boss from Convergent Technologies, “Steve we’ve all just resigned from Convergent and we’re starting a new company. We were sitting in our cheap hotel room when the phone rang.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

SoCal CTO

JUNE 26, 2012

I've done four Free CTO Consulting Sessions in the past month with startup founders who all had run into variations of the same problem. Investors and early customers were becoming worried about the ability of the founder to deliver. My belief is that you shouldn't sign that contract.

Software Developers 254

Software Developers Software Development Agile Fractional CTO 254

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Later he posted about his experience in Challenges of Startups.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Fractional CTO Technology CTO Hire 170

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

I’ve talked with a number of software development shops who are eager to get into the business of cofounding companies, i.e., getting product revenue and equity instead of just consulting revenue. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., The discounts?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Home About Contact Home About Contact The Metamorphosis Becoming an Entrepreneur, by Matt Mireles Startup Lessons for the Proto-Founder I started SpeakerText in October 2008 during the financial apocalypse. For students, your startup is more like a resume-enhancing ‘extra-curricular’ than a regular job. No one funded us.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Problem was, I seemed to suck at the whole startup thing. Rather, I didn’t have anyone around me familiar enough with startups to tell me that I was doing it all wrong. One of the things I do as a founder of a later stage startup is to meet with early stage entrepreneurs to help them get their companies going.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? Many startups these days are first-time entrepreneurs. After that various i.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

Find Questions, Topics and People Add Question Add Question Non-Technical Co-Founders Co-Founders Technical Co-founders Finding Co-Founders Startups & "How Important Are Ideas?" " Web Development Startups Solo Founders I am a creative guy with a startup idea. "I am a creative guy with a startup idea."

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

mashable.com

NOVEMBER 3, 2010

Here’s an overview: Mitch Kapor: Kapor is founding partner of Kapor Capital , a firm that invests in seed and early stage startups. This is the man you’ll need to impress should you wish to slice off a piece of the sFund pie for your startup. and Path Intelligence.

Angel Investor 80

Angel Investor Startup San Francisco Social Media 80

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

He’s a former Dell exec that worked on their startup team with Ingrid Vandervelt, a Capital Factory mentor, and the co-founder of DivInc, Austin’s pre-accelerator program for diverse founders, which is hosted at Capital Factory. You can learn more about about The Startup Diversity and Inclusion Pledge and take the pledge here.

Technical Cofounder 48

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 48

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 5, 2010

In the era of Skype, web conferencing tools and collaboration software conventional wisdom says that distributed startup teams can be just as effective as those that are in person. Or more precisely the people espousing the benefits of distributed startups teams are often distributed and therefore self rationalizing it. Been there.

Distribution 335

Distribution Offshore CTO Hire Bulgaria 335