Steve Blank

OCTOBER 19, 2009

While the last post was titled “ You Know You’re Getting Close to Your Customers When They Offer You a Job “, this post should probably be titled, “You Know You’re Getting Close to Your Customers When You Offer Them a Job.&# Context here.)

Engineer 198

Engineer Silicon Valley Part-Time VPE Advisory Board 198

Steve Blank

NOVEMBER 13, 2018

If you’re an early employee at a startup, one day you will wake up to find that what you worked on 24/7 for the last year is no longer the most important thing – you’re no longer the most important employee, and process, meetings, paperwork and managers and bosses have shown up. The company was going to hire a VP of Marketing.

Part-Time VPE 333

Part-Time VPE Employee Cofounder Hiring 333

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 1, 2014

Another way to learn more about who’s speaking is to sort the conference program by category and find people addressing specific topics. He was a very early employee of Facebook , and engineering director there through the moment it blew up. Now he’s VP of engineering at Dropbox , where he’s seeing similar growth.

Lean 165

Lean Fractional CTO Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE 165

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

AUGUST 9, 2010

If you can't find ten people who say they'll buy it, your company is bullshit. I say "find ten people who say they'll buy." I say "get off your ass and produce hard evidence that customers are in your future light cone? ". Since I'm my own target customer, I already know what to build.". Short-sighted, no?

Software Review 312

Software Review Part-Time VPE Houston Cofounder 312

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

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. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Ben's Blog

OCTOBER 14, 2010

The biggest difference between being a great functional manager and being a great general manager—and particularly a great CEO—is that as a general manager, you must hire and manage people who are far more competent at their jobs than you would be at their jobs. So, with no experience, how do you hire someone good? Probably none.

Part-Time VPE 78

Part-Time VPE Hiring Wisconsin Matching 78

Version One Ventures

AUGUST 26, 2016

There’s a lot of debate surrounding the right time to bring executive level hires into your start-up. First, your hiring/team building strategy should follow two key rules. Founders should focus their time and efforts on the areas that create the most value. 2 nd hire: VP of Finance. 5 th hire: VP Product.

Part-Time VPE 60

Part-Time VPE Management Finance Vertical 60

Austin Startup

SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

A CTO will guide your product strategy, market validation, architectural decisions, process optimization, recruiting, and hiring. If outward facing, they will attend important sales calls and speak to the technology strategy and vision. A CTO’s real value is in finding opportunities with asymmetric payoffs.

Fractional CTO 54

Fractional CTO CTO Hire CTO Technical Review 54

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. I’ve convinced the team you’d be perfect, come join us as the VP of Marketing.” I knew we almost had him convinced when our sales guy and Andy started talking to each other in Dutch.

North Carolina 125

North Carolina Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 125

Steve Blank

JUNE 25, 2009

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers.

Technology 138

Technology Silicon Valley Fractional VPE Part-Time VPE 138

Steve Blank

DECEMBER 11, 2023

The story starts with a company you probably never heard of – Engineering Research Associates. While unique for the time, this public-private partnership was in-line with the wartime experiment of Vannevar Bush’s OSRD – using civilians in universities to develop military weapons. Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5

Minnesota 281

Minnesota Engineer Minneapolis Silicon Valley 281

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. Collective Intellect’s customers use this analysis to inform and measure the effectiveness of their PR and marketing strategy.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Part-Time VPE Architecture Ruby 40

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 21, 2013

They may run a function, such as product or engineering, or they may have a broader operational role and carry a COO title. For example, at one of my portfolio companies, the other founder looked after administration, finance, operations, product and engineering. Basically, everything but sales and marketing.

Cofounder 45

Cofounder Founder Part-Time VPE Portfolio 45

Both Sides of the Table

APRIL 2, 2014

There’s a healthy balance between allowing a design team to dream up functional requirements, talk with customers, analyze competitors and for technical projects – research the latest cool-kid tools to play with. You see there is a creative tension along the spectrum of time and scope.

Software 344

Software Part-Time VPE Engineer Leadership 344

ConversionXL

AUGUST 18, 2021

A product demo is a critical tool in the sales process. Done badly, you risk losing sales. With a live demo, for example, you engage a prospective customer (or customers) in real-time. You’re also able to set it and leave it, instead of needing a sales team to deliver real-time demos around prospects’ schedules.

Product 122

Product Analytics Part-Time VPE Video 122

Seeing Both Sides

AUGUST 16, 2012

I first met Steve when he was VP of Engineering at Centerline software, a software development tools startup, and I was a junior in college. In founding TripAdvisor, Kaufer wanted to take his hard core engineering skills and apply them to vertical search in travel. Scaling Lesson 1: Focus On Finding A Great Business Model.

Part-Time VPE 54

Part-Time VPE Software Review Costa Rica Technical Review 54

Startup Lessons Learned

DECEMBER 7, 2008

In a few cases, they are clearly smart people in a bad situation, and Ive written about their pain in The product managers lament and The engineering managers lament. Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. Suffice to say, most of the hackers Ive known have been men. Just change it.

Software Review 94

Software Review Technical Review Part-Time VPE San Francisco 94

www.women2.org

MARCH 8, 2012

Published on: July 13, 2011 Posted By Angie Tags: Elizabeth Knopf , Finding A Co-Founder , FounderDating , Sorced , Technical Co-Founder , Tips & Tricks. After quitting my job and starting Sorced , I spent a few months validating my business concept by creating the product mockups and doing customer development.

Cofounder 47

Cofounder Technical Review San Francisco Founder 47

blog.expensify.com

APRIL 24, 2012

Update: The end is near, Expensify is hiring a.NET programmer! As you might know, we’re hiring the best programmers in the world. But finding such people is more than a full time job. Indeed, I spend about half my time on it, while Lisa spends about all hers. Expensify Blog. Sunday edit : Still going!

Java 107

Java PHP Software Review Coder 107