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Startup CTO or Developer

TechEmpower

What does it mean to be a CTO for a startup? Should a startup CTO spend their time programming? Here’s a graphic from Socal CTO that illustrates the roles as they change over time: In its earliest days, a startup’s top need is often to produce a product. Founder-Developer Gap How big is your startup’s Founder-Developer Gap?

CTO Hire 260
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Equity for Early Employees in Early Stage Startups

SoCal CTO

I was asked by a reader how much equity he should give out to early employees and to service providers in a very early stage startup. Founders vs. Early Employees To help with this discussion, let me start with a definition of "early employee." the better the startup will be.

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Technical Advisors: Every Startup Needs One

TechEmpower

Startup founders make decisions on a daily basis – significant decisions that will have lasting impact on their business. Actually, many startups need two kinds of technical advisors. Early-on then, it’s important to bring on people who can produce volume. We’ve talked about this before in Startup CTO or Developer.

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10 Keys To Surviving Startup Cash Flow Requirements

Startup Professionals Musings

The “valley of death” is a common term in the startup world, referring to the difficulty of covering the negative cash flow in the early stages of a startup, before their new product or service is bringing in revenue from real customers. Join a startup incubator. Use crowd funding to build reserves.

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Early-stage Regional Venture Funds–part 2 of 3 of Bigger in Bend

Steve Blank

Dino Vendetti a VC at Bay Partners, moved up to Bend, Oregon on a mission to engineer Bend into a regional technology cluster. Part 2: Early-stage Regional Venture Funds. Part 3: Engineering a Regional Tech Cluster. What’s Missing Is Early Stage Capital. Part 1: Bend, Oregon Ecosystem and Entrepreneurs.

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10 Marketing Lessons for Early-Stage Tech Startups

Both Sides of the Table

I made every textbook mistake at my first startup, which is why I believe I was much more effective at my second one. The following are some lessons I learned about early-stage startup marketing. For early-stage consumer companies I would be careful not to market futures at all.

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4 Ways Early Stage CTOs Can Learn to Roll With the Punches

ReadWriteStart

There’s always a tinge of “TBD” that accompanies the role of an early stage startup CTO. Early stage companies can’t immediately hire someone with the tech and executive know-how needed to handle the job. Most startups appoint a lead developer or some other tech go-to […].