SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 19, 2012

I was talking with an early-stage founder who has a product vision and wants to get it built. He is not a technical person, but is somewhat web savvy. Founder : Ummm. Founder : Umm. And in the case of defining mobile/web/software, there is even more variability in terms of form and format. 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 2, 2013

What's Going to Go Wrong A lot of founders don't really understand Lean Startup principles. Do you have a Technical Advisors: Every Web/Mobile Startup Must Have One ? They look at the following high level definition of Lean: and they interpret that as write up an executive summary with your ideas and hand it to developers to build.

Technical Cofounder 219

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Developers Software Development 219

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

Solving the Founder-Tech Gap that came out of some fun conversations that Bob and I have been having. A little while ago, I suggested that Every Web/Mobile Startup Should Have a Technical Advisor. While Bob’s post focuses on Technology Advisors and the Startup Founder Developer Gap , we also discussed advisors more broadly.

Advisory Board 241

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 12, 2012

- Make sure you go through the 32 Questions Developers May Have Forgot to Ask a Startup Founder. The bad news is that Finding Developers is Tough Here in Los Angeles and even people willing to pay have a hard time finding Web Development in Los Angeles. Do you have dollars to pay for development?

Technical Cofounder 211

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SoCal CTO

APRIL 2, 2012

Hiring seems to be the preferred use of seed funds (by investors and founders), whereas I'd prefer a focus on customer acquisition. And that should be the focus of the founders -- to find the special fit that will make your company take off. The startup founder is definitely not ready to hire a CTO. They need to conserve cash.

CTO Hire 205

CTO Hire Technical Cofounder Fractional CTO Los Angeles 205

SoCal CTO

APRIL 23, 2010

How to Work With a Contract Web Developer How To Bootstrap Your Startup

CTO Hire 219

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SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 7, 2009

I talk to a lot of founders of startups. Normally the product is defined as a web site. Most founders are fairly passionate about the features and functions of the web site, iPhone application, Facebook application, or whatever web application represents the product. For me, my number one application is email.

Web 150

Web SMS HTML Distribution 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 19, 2010

In between, I got an email from CJ Cenizal asking about this exact issue: I'm growing a social gaming startup, Elevated Games ( elevatedgames.com ) as Founder and CEO. In Los Angeles Web Developer , I talked about the issues with finding developers in Los Angeles based the experience that one startup founder had.

Southern California 175

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SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 1, 2010

I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. And I tried to evaluate the idea and figure out: What did the founder really need here? Was it a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? And do I fit as a Part-Time CTO , Technology Advisor , CTO Founder , Acting CTO ?

Technical Cofounder 241

Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Equity Sweat Equity 241

SoCal CTO

MAY 22, 2012

So, you may also want to go look at: Los Angeles Startup Events Here are some of the events and meetups that I've spoken at, attended or at least interest me. Of course, given the size of this list and having kids, I really can't attend a lot of these. So, if you happen to read this and want to meet me, just reach out directly.

Los Angeles 198

Los Angeles Southern California PHP Ruby 198

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys.

Fractional CTO 264

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 264

SoCal CTO

MARCH 3, 2011

Many of the founders of these companies are surprised to learn that I'm willing to review what they are doing (maybe an hour) and get on the phone for an hour with them and provide free advice. Do you have a Startup Founder Developer Gap ? Unfortunately, we are web, mobile, software, database guys.

Fractional CTO 259

Fractional CTO CTO Hire NDA Technical Review 259

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2010

If you’re a Web-based startup, for example, show me how many unique visitors you think you can get in the beginning, and what you’re using for an estimated conversion rate (buyers to browsers). And it’s surprising how few startup founders think in those terms. Good founders will have ideas about all of these at a fine grain.

Metrics 159

Metrics Startup Retention Software Developers 159

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. During that time one of the founders had mentioned that for the initial agreed time (3 months, equivalent dollars could be translated to 2% of equity but no agreement was reached at that time). What are the terms the founders got in the deal?

CTO 167

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 167

SoCal CTO

MARCH 11, 2013

Yesterday, I was talking to a startup founder about their MVP and they said something that finally got me to write this post: "I have a few investors interested but they want to see a product."

Algorithm 264

Algorithm Metrics Viral Venture Capital 264

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 9, 2009

I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. Some founders are taken aback. What's the User Interface Beyond the Web Site ? I always take a very different approach in early conversations.

Software Developers 292

Software Developers Software Development Developer Software 292

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

I did a presentation this week at Coloft that looked at how Non-Technical Founders can go about getting their MVP built. And the back-end is something that a non-technical founder can manage. We end up using WordPress a lot as the marketing front-end of our web sites. It had a passionate group of 50 people attending.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

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? The poor guy. What a bad $200M decision.

Technical Cofounder 150

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SoCal CTO

JANUARY 18, 2011

I have been working full time with two founders for about 10 months on full time basis. During that time one of the founders had mentioned that for the initial agreed time (3 months, equivalent dollars could be translated to 2% of equity but no agreement was reached at that time). What are the terms the founders got in the deal?

CTO 150

CTO CTO Hire Equity Vesting 150

SoCal CTO

JUNE 9, 2010

But founders need to know how to ask for their advice and when to ignore it. Startup Insights From Paul English, Co-Founder of Kayak - OnStartups , May 10, 2010 I’m just wrapping up several weeks of attending conferences across both coasts. Why Entrepreneurs Hate Lawyers. was having coffee with a friend who teaches at the U.C.

Fractional CTO 248

Fractional CTO Startup Venture Capital Cofounder 248

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 20, 2007

skip to main | skip to sidebar SoCal CTO Tuesday, February 20, 2007 Innovation and Geography I ran across a post in Read/Write Web - Does Location Matter in Web Innovation? ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

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SoCal CTO

MARCH 5, 2007

link] [link] Posted byTony Karrer at 5:33 PM 0comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

Open Source 150

Open Source Business Model Technical Cofounder Southern California 150

SoCal CTO

JANUARY 26, 2010

But often the result of a Founder hiring a developer or lead developer or even a VP engineering is a gap created between the founders and the developers. I’ll address the specifics of what this Founder Developer Gap looks like below. I understand the desire for hiring someone who is going to product product. Accounting?

CTO 225

CTO Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review 225

SoCal CTO

MARCH 20, 2007

In it he separates web consumers into: Time Rich (more time than money) and Time Poor (more money than time). ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

MAY 21, 2012

Startup Feedback Panelist Tony has participated on many panels where he can provide real-time feedback to startup founders. As the web has led to exposure of every increasing numbers, people need ways to filter the possible options. 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

MARCH 16, 2010

I am hearing from my project management team a bit of distrust in the technical capacity of our web development team. Still there are some common signals / symptoms that I hear about from Founders/CxOs in companies that are the reason they are calling me. This question came up last week. You need to dive in.

Developer 179

Developer Los Angeles Software Developers Software Development 179

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? ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo. 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? ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo. User Interface Beyond the Web Site ► November (7) Negative Customer Acquisition Costs - Creative Sta.

Venture Capital 150

Venture Capital Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 9, 2007

Posted byTony Karrer at 9:30 AM 0comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

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 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

MARCH 20, 2007

Posted byTony Karrer at 5:02 PM 0comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Search Engineer 150

SoCal CTO

MARCH 13, 2007

March 14, 2007 10:47 AM Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO?

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Internet 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 17, 2007

When I was looking for speakers for an event last fall on Web 2.0 , LinkedIn was a great way to reach out. ► February (2) CTO Founders / Cofounders Part-Time Startup CTO? ► January (5) Los Angeles Web Developer Startup CTO or Developer When to Use Facebook Connect – Twitter Oauth – Goo.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 28, 2007

Posted byTony Karrer at 7:01 AM 0comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles Mobile 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 25, 2007

Posted byTony Karrer at 8:30 AM 0comments: Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom) About Me Tony Karrer Dr. Tony Karrer is CEO/CTO of TechEmpower , a Los Angeles Web Development firm, and is considered one of the top technologists in e-Learning. He has twenty years’ experience as a CTO.

Technical Cofounder 150

Technical Cofounder Southern California Los Angeles CTO Hire 150