SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 27, 2011

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." I'll get to service providers in a later post.

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

Using my StartupRoar as a radar, I came across a great post by Gabriel Weinberg Do you really need a full-time hire for that? Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. In other words, they come in asking for help with sourcing and hiring.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO Los Angeles 205

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. Seed Stage Compensation What are typical compensation numbers?

CTO Hire 329

CTO Hire Equity Seed Stage Option Pool 329

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 10, 2012

And it made me come to a new realization: Every early-stage web/mobile/online startup should have at least one technical advisor, probably two. Most early-stage, in-house teams needs to be hands on developers, not strategic. This is exactly the kind of thing I'm doing as a Part-Time CTO or Technical Advisor for startups.

Technical Review 332

Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO Software Review 332

SoCal CTO

MAY 27, 2010

And I always recommend it to people involved in early stage startups. I received a follow-up question from an early-stage startup about the Founder Developer Gap that I’ve described before and that was part of the interview with Frank. Sometimes this is fatal for early stage companies. What Should You Do?

CTO Hire 170

CTO Hire Developer Founder Startup 170

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. That’s why Roger Smith puts the focus of the CTO on programming for the earliest stage.

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

SoCal CTO

APRIL 18, 2012

Or they are looking at Hiring a CTO and want to see what salary and equity ranges look like. You then make selections around aspects like Founder Status, Job Title, Headcount, Revenue, Development Stage, Capital Raised, Funding Round, etc. Well the easiest visualization to use is to go to the Benchmarks Tab. It has not.

CTO Hire 294

CTO Hire Salary Equity Los Angeles 294