SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 14, 2012

I was just asked about a particular startup situation (seed stage, CMO hire, non-founder) and particularly what compensation and equity is appropriate.

CTO Hire 329

CTO Hire Equity Seed Stage Option Pool 329

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. Founder : Ummm. Founder : Umm. So, I promised this founder to do a post talking about how you go about create specifications of your MVP. He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. what do you mean?

Developer 354

Developer Technical Review Fractional CTO Software Review 354

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

Are you a non-technical startup founder who’s about to go have a conversation with a Chief Technical Officer (CTO) or Technical advisory type person? Maybe you are going for a reality check on your current situation - wondering if you have a Weak Development Team or a Startup Founder Developer Gap. We love interesting challenges.

Fractional CTO 211

Fractional CTO Conversion NDA Early Stage 211

SoCal CTO

APRIL 18, 2012

CTO Salary and Equity Comparison My guess is that most people who come here are going to be Founders, CEOs and CTOs who want to compare salary and equity of the CTO Position in their organization vs. their peers. Or they are looking at Hiring a CTO and want to see what salary and equity ranges look like. It has not.

CTO Hire 294

CTO Hire Salary Equity Los Angeles 294

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. I’ll address the specifics of what this Founder Developer Gap looks like below.

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

Startup Feedback Panelist Tony has participated on many panels where he can provide real-time feedback to startup founders. What parts Agile addresses and the big problems with Agile for early-stage startups? Startups provide introductions and Tony and fellow panelists provide feedback in real-time.

Fractional CTO 175

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup Social Network 175

SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

I recently posted about the Increase in Early-Stage Startup Activity in Los Angeles. In that post, I mentioned how one of the signals is the big increase in number of startup events and the number of attendees at those events. Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these.

Los Angeles 198

Los Angeles Southern California PHP Ruby 198

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 6, 2011

" Today I had two conversations with early stage startups (see Free CTO Consulting ). In both cases, the founder and I brainstormed on ways to shift the product in order to get closer to what I perceived as something that would be great. " One was an enterprise software product. Customer Validation 101.

Customer 227

Customer Fractional CTO Viral Lean 227

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2010

And while I’m at it, a great post by Steve Blank No Accounting For Startups looking at early stage score keeping. This relates to another great post Freemium Founders: Start Charging for Things Today! where Tony Wright suggests charging right now.

Acquisition 150

Acquisition Cofounder Technical Cofounder Cost 150

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. Tell me a bit about the Founder's Institute. FI and Adeo have already been helpful making introductions to several of the leading early-stage investors for casual gaming companies.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2010

In my post, Technology Roles in Startups , I described some of the different ways I engage with startup companies such as CTO Founder , CTO , Part-Time CTO , Acting CTO , Consultant, Advisor and Advisory Board Member. In Why assemble an advisory board? And don’t confuse having a CTO with getting an Technology Advisor.

Technical Review 150

Technical Review Advisory Board Technology Fractional CTO 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

Ive personally been involved in the start-up world in Los Angeles for about 15 years, and have had the opportunity to work on many early-stage companies (e.g., ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. eHarmongy) as an acting CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Part of the discussion around this is the talk about the founder who only got $83M (as compared to $3xxM for the other founders) who bailed out early and choose to go back to school. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 1, 2007

The articles I cited there around finding co-founders suggests that Ben is on the money. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Ben asks for help finding the people who would be good for entreprenuers to know. No small task Ben.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Networking Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Search Southern California Engineer 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Internet 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 28, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Mobile Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Los Angeles Southern California CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 27, 2007

Some items from the pod cast: 100,000 - babies born as a result of relationships started on eHarmony 15M registered 1% of marriages in US this year resulting from eHarmony I dont know if these are true, but still, the impact of the vision of the original founders Neil Clark Warren and Greg Forgatch is amazing.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 23, 2007

Why does this hurt, well I was just reading a few blog posts yesterday on finding startup co-founders: Where do you Find Cofounders? Startup Co-Founders: If You Cant Recruit Em, Should You Join Em? Finding Startup Co-Founders You would hope that networking events would be a good way to find suitable folks.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California Networking 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Los Angeles 150

Los Angeles Technical Cofounder Southern California CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Incubator 150

Incubator Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

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

SoCal CTO

MARCH 22, 2007

► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? Early Stage Marketing and Branding – Farida Fotouh. Technology Advisor Technology Roles in Startups Pricing Customer Acquisition Sunk Costs and More -. Technology Jobs in Southern California – a Rebound.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

I guess I’m wondering why early stage investment isn’t aiming at these kinds of investments? By way of background for the question, there’s a great post by Bob Aholt, a Pasadena Angel: An Angel Investor’s Thoughts on Valuation. The largest number of exit transactions today are in the under $30-million valuation range.

Hockey Stick 205

Hockey Stick NPV IRR Forecast 205

SoCal CTO

OCTOBER 8, 2009

This is a great presentation and one that I'm going to point out to startup / early stage company CEOs. Normally, when I am talking to the founder of any startup trying to figure out what they need to do, one of the things I always try to do is understand their business at its core.

Metrics 225

Metrics Startup Retention Acquisition 225

SoCal CTO

JULY 23, 2012

This leads to a set of questions: What is the role of a CTO in the early stages of a company, and does that role change later on as both the company and that individual matures? I've previously addressed the role of a CTO in early-stages in my post Startup CTO or Developer. How will I know when the need has arisen?

CTO Hire 231

CTO Hire Technical Review Developer Software Review 231

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. As one founder put it: We keep iterating over relatively the same features and functions.

Software Developers 254

Software Developers Software Development Agile Fractional CTO 254

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 31, 2011

When I talk to the founders of one of these “eHarmony of” companies, one of the hardest problems is how to predict and test the concept in the early days – before you have scale. The problem for an early stage startup is that without critical mass, the system doesn’t provide much value.

Marketing 204

Marketing Matching Algorithm Bootstrapping 204

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 31, 2011

When I talk to the founders of one of these “eHarmony of” companies, one of the hardest problems is how to predict and test the concept in the early days – before you have scale. The problem for an early stage startup is that without critical mass, the system doesn’t provide much value.

Marketing 196

Marketing Matching Algorithm Bootstrapping 196