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Why good people leave large tech companies

Steve Blank

They make hardware with a large part of their innovation in embedded software and services. The CFO asked me to stay as one of the engineering directors came in for a meeting. So, this was a meeting of last resort, as the engineering director was making one last appeal to the CFO to keep his team in town. I wish I hadn’t.

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See More than 120 Speakers and Mentors at The Lean Startup Conference

Startup Lessons Learned

When you look through the list , you’ll see big names that we’re very pleased we landed, epic companies we really want to hear from, and people we’re particularly excited to present because they have incredible stories to share--and you won’t hear them anyplace else. Now he’s VP of engineering at Dropbox , where he’s seeing similar growth.

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Ardent 1: Supercomputers Get Personal

Steve Blank

I’ve convinced the team you’d be perfect, come join us as the VP of Marketing.” My ex-boss was going to be the VP of Engineering and I would report to the CEO whose marketing acumen and sales instincts seemed at the time to be telepathic and sense of theater was legend. Only then did I realize we both forgot to ask.

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How to Deliver More Software Projects On Time

Both Sides of the Table

There’s an old joke in software development, “How much time does it take to design software?” If you’ve been involved with a number of software projects you already have an intuitive sense for this. If you’re not actively involved you’ll get both scope drift AND time drift.

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Convergent Technologies: War Story 1 – Selling with Sports Scores.

Steve Blank

These companies would take our computers and put their name on them and resell them to their customers. Business customers were starting to ask for “office automation solutions” – word processing, spreadsheets, graphing software on a desktop. Hiring a VP of Sales in customer discovery typically sets a startup back.

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Startup Advice: When to Use a Consulting CTO

rapidrollout.wordpress.com

He or she might call himself a “consulting CTO,&# “freelance CTO,&# “on-demand CTO,&# “CTO on call,&# “CTO for hire,&# or just a “technology strategy advisor.&# If you find him, he’s gold, and not only because of his knowledge and experience.

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CTO-as-a-Service in Crucial Stages to Success

ReadWriteStart

A Chief Technology Officer, as the name suggests, plays a key role in pivotal technology implementations in the organization and ensures that technology adequately addresses company challenges. The “right” time to bring in a CTO varies from company to company. Where to find a skilled CTO? How to spot the moment you need CaaS.