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What is a CTO?

Austin Startup

Ideally, they will help you understand technology ROI, innovation accounting, and also help you understand where you can cut costs and where you need to invest. If outward facing, they will attend important sales calls and speak to the technology strategy and vision. They will review and negotiate all related contracts.

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The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

Steve Blank

The story starts with a company you probably never heard of – Engineering Research Associates. In January 1946, they founded Engineering Research Associates (ERA). Norris became the VP of Engineering, Engstrom the VP of Research, and Meader VP of Manufacturing. Sales in their first fiscal year were $1.5

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9 Austin Startup Week Sessions at Capital Factory That Blew Us Away

Austin Startup

As the cost of starting a company goes down over time, VC’s have become more than just money providers— they also help entrepreneurs gain customers and grow their teams. The unit cost fell and this idea of pay as you go. Scott advises that when you pick investors, you have to have compatible alignments and incentives.

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

Steve Blank

Twenty eight years ago I was the bright, young, eager product marketing manager called out to the field to support sales by explaining the technical details of Convergent Technologies products to potential customers. Their engineers hated us. They looked at their watches, gave our sales guy a quizzical look and left.

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How To Find A Programmer To Build Your Startup Idea

socialmatchbox.com

These days sales, marketing and PR people seem to grow on trees. If you have a friend who is a recruiter then ask them to tell you what they recommend that will not cost anything. This means considering what the opportunity cost for working on a high risk venture is relative to other things they can spend their time on.

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Women 2.0 » FounderDating: How I Found My Co-Founder

www.women2.org

Being a resource-constrained entrepreneur, I wanted a co-founder because even if I got a paid engineer or an outsourced team to build it, I would still need to build a team, and there would be continuous development needs. It’s the same process as sales and dating, and I know how to do both, well, at least sales… So, how hard can this be?

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Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

In a few cases, they are clearly smart people in a bad situation, and Ive written about their pain in The product managers lament and The engineering managers lament. As a last disclaimer, please consult the definition of the word hacker if youre not familiar with the controversies surrounding that term.) Hire a CTO or VP Engineering.