Both Sides of the Table

SEPTEMBER 17, 2011

. “I need somebody to run operations.&# I never said you shouldn’t have a VP of Operations. I think people understand this title to mean more somebody who handles operational issues rather than somebody who is more like a “chief of staff&# as a COO often is. and my favorite]. What will it do?

Operations 292

Operations CTO Hire Startup Early Stage 292

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 15, 2019

As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Operate with a comparable level of integrity.

Cofounder 221

Cofounder Software Review CTO Hire Founder 221

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2007

I generally am working as an acting CTO for about 3-4 start-ups or other companies at any one time. I also found this interesting graphic of the changing needs around the CTO role in different size/type companies that somewhat echoes my experience. During Stabilization, often the focus is transitioning to a full-time CTO.

Fractional CTO 231

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Early Stage 231

Steve Blank

OCTOBER 10, 2023

Laura Thomas is a former CIA operations officer. Below is the first of her three-part series. —- At least a few times a month, people looking to jump ask about my transition, which has led to me consolidating my answers below. Only 15% of my time was doing the more exciting operations.

Government 177

Government CTO Hire Technical Review Advisory Board 177

Startup Professionals Musings

OCTOBER 8, 2013

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps.

Merger 221

Merger Acquisition CTO Hire Fractional CTO 221

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 9, 2020

Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Cofounder 435

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Equity Intellectual Property 435

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 1, 2012

This strategy is called “organic growth,” yet it alone may yield only a fraction of the potential you could achieve, unless you add the additional strategies of partnerships and M&A (mergers and acquisitions). Add basic partner contracts or alliances. Use external sourcing to fill in the non-critical gaps.

CTO Hire 229

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Merger Non-Compete 229

Startup Professionals Musings

JULY 16, 2017

As a long-time business advisor and angel investor, I’m a believer that “two heads are better than one” in building a new business. Very few entrepreneurs have the range of skills and experience to be the solution creator as well as business creator, or operational as well as sales leader. Operate with a comparable level of integrity.

Partner 140

Partner Software Review CTO Hire Cofounder 140

View from Seed

SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

Projecting from the seed stage, there are two types of team-building topics you want to address – key senior hires and org-level team building. As the company progresses through product market fit (PMF), you will want to highlight other key senior hires required to scale and round out the functional expertise of the exec team.

Part-Time VPE 195

Part-Time VPE Seed Stage CTO Hire Forecast 195

SoCal CTO

MAY 13, 2014

You can’t afford and don’t want to hire a full-time CTO or architect. For me, if I can help you within a couple hours Free Startup CTO Consulting Sessions , I’m happy to do that and I don’t expect compensation or equity for that. This might be technology, marketing, sales, operations, international expansion, etc.

Advisory Board 241

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup 241

Both Sides of the Table

JUNE 21, 2014

The truth is you really don’t know how your teammates or your bosses will perform in good times and bad. You hire people who look good on paper. So one of the surest signs you’ve hired a leader is the willingness of his or her former team to re-assemble. After 6 months – you know. You REALLY know.

CTO Hire 320

CTO Hire Cofounder San Francisco Silicon Valley 320

Startup Professionals Musings

APRIL 28, 2014

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). If your business is managing contracts and patents, it makes sense, but the CLO for most startups is LegalZoom on the Internet.

CTO Hire 252

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 252

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 10, 2018

Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 238

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 238

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 16, 2014

Eventually you need a VP of Product to handle your product roadmap, a CTO for engineering leadership and VPs of sales, marketing & biz dev. You hire great people. You motivate, cajole, reassign tasks, hire, fire and push the organization forward. Do you hire more sales people? You set direction. You course correct.

CTO Hire 385

CTO Hire Entrepreneur Technical Review Leadership 385

blog.chrisomeara.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Chris OMeara Main | Probing Code Quality » 01/31/2010 Startup CTO: Could It Work? A CEO friend of mine recently asked my opinion about Tony Karrers Startup CTO or Developer article. I think the part time CTO could work. A few had the title CTO but they all fit the technical rock star and hacker profile.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Startup Cofounder 40

Startup Professionals Musings

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). If your business is managing contracts and patents, it makes sense, but the CLO for most startups is LegalZoom on the Internet.

CTO Hire 244

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 244

www.lanceglasser.com

MAY 13, 2012

What does a CTO do? Operations and Manufacturing. What does a CTO do? What does a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) do in a high-tech company? So what is the CTO job? The CTO is not responsible for delivering products every quarter, but if you miss the internet or a similar technical inflection point, fire him.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Technical Review Architecture 40

YoungUpstarts

AUGUST 5, 2015

by Marcus Turner, President and CTO of Enola Labs. Make sure that there is a well-planned contract for everything. Having the proper contracts in place is discussed in any “business 101” setting. Plan everything with the end in mind (both positive and negative) and you have your business off to the right start.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Advisory Board Software Review 100

www.allthingsdistributed.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Main July 11, 2007 The Different CTO Roles I was putting together a short panel presentation on the roleof a Chief Technology Officer in corporate innovation and I once again realized that there is quite a bit of confusion around the role of the CTO. I am posting it here as it might be of generalinterest.

CTO 40

CTO CTO Hire Syndicate Syndication 40

Both Sides of the Table

JULY 1, 2010

As your organization grows and you hire senior staff where you are no longer managing every employee directly the issue of how to manage people that are not your “direct&# reports arises. You’ll get sales information from your VP of Sales, marketing information from your VP Marketing, tech information from your CTO and so on.

CTO Hire 308

CTO Hire Management Technical Review Part-Time VPE 308

Version One Ventures

SEPTEMBER 15, 2021

The technical mastermind behind Replay is Brian Hackett (CTO, co-founder) who has been thinking about and working on this concept for a long time… in fact, his PhD at Stanford 10+ years ago laid the foundation for Replay. And of course, they are hiring! And that leads us to why we’re so excited: the team!

CTO Hire 78

CTO Hire Web Cofounder Software Engineering 78

Gust

APRIL 20, 2014

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). If your business is managing contracts and patents, it makes sense, but the CLO for most startups is LegalZoom on the Internet.

CTO Hire 171

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Angel Investor Public Relations 171

Startup Professionals Musings

DECEMBER 1, 2010

The most common ones I see and salute are CEO, CFO, and CTO. A few other credible ones would include Chairman of the Board (COB), Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). If your business is managing contracts and patents, it makes sense, but the CLO for most startups is LegalZoom on the Internet.

CTO Hire 227

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Startup Angel Investor 227

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 4, 2014

Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Cofounder 261

Cofounder Stock Founder Technical Cofounder 261

YoungUpstarts

APRIL 6, 2015

by Tal Segalov, CTO & co-founder of Mintigo. The message should always be consistent, and that means keeping your colors, visuals and business logos in line with your brick and mortar operations. Hire the right marketing team. This is crucial for businesses to succeed in finding the right customers are the right time.

CTO Hire 100

CTO Hire Cofounder Social Media Mobile 100

Hunter Walker

JUNE 7, 2014

Not because they’re all operating in stealth or pre-product – in fact some already are earning $1m+ in revenue per annum. Hiring Has Changed: Before the press was a way of generating interest for hiring. Most of the startups we’ve backed at Homebrew don’t rush to announce their funding.

Technical Review 118

Technical Review CTO Hire Finance Stealth 118

Steve Blank

JUNE 20, 2022

How does a newly hired Chief Technology Officer (CTO) find and grow the islands of innovation inside a large company? How not to waste your first six months as a new CTO thinking you’re making progress when the status quo is working to keep you at bay? But this is the first time he was the CTO of a company this size.

CTO 358

CTO Technical Cofounder CTO Hire Incubator 358

www.informationarbitrage.com

FEBRUARY 24, 2010

Main February 23, 2010 Advice for CTO Founders: Dont Let Business Kill the Business Founding a technology company is an amazing thing. Too often, however, I have found CTO / Founders paired with business people who not only don't add value, but frequently detract from the value of the business.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Founder Cap Table Vesting 40

ReadWriteStart

FEBRUARY 1, 2012

Most have felt the program worthwhile and given them a jumpstart on their operations. I spent very little time here in my professional life, so my local business connections were limited. "Our Our plan is to have seven figure revenues and be profitable by Q3, in addition to to seven new hires by end of the year," he says.

St. Louis 118

St. Louis CTO Hire Fractional CTO Entrepreneur 118

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 24, 2016

Level of responsibility and time allocated. Co-founders only able to work part-time, with responsibility and major income sources elsewhere, don’t carry the same risk as others with more operational responsibility. The CTO of many technical startups was the original founder.

Equity 120

Equity Cofounder Technical Cofounder Intellectual Property 120

Gust

AUGUST 23, 2012

The lead founder is likely to wear the hats of Founder, Chairman, CEO, President, CFO, CRO and CMO, while a co-founder may well be CTO, Chief Product Officer, and Programming Team Lead. So as more skills are needed, the founder(s) tend to spread out the responsibilities, pushing responsibility down the chain to newly hired CFOs, CMOs, etc.

CTO Hire 118

CTO Hire Cofounder Startup Founder 118

SoCal CTO

MAY 15, 2009

Companies also use social networking sites in the hiring process, and increasingly, to do innovative advertising (such as the recent Jack in the Box campaign). Previously, he was Chief Operating Officer & Strategic Creative at USA GROUP, INC., He has 20 years’ experience as CTO. in Computer Science.

Social Network 150

Social Network Networking Los Angeles Fractional CTO 150

Both Sides of the Table

FEBRUARY 16, 2015

recently wrote a post talking about how some VCs meddle in operating company decisions or some executive teams are too reliant on VCs to jump in and make hard calls for them. So operating at a higher level, helping to set the framework for decision making and then sitting down and watching the game be played, is certainly the way to go.”

Startup 150

Startup CTO Hire Sales Leadership 150

Steve Blank

APRIL 23, 2014

In response, venture capital firms like Sequoia and Andreessen/Horowitz are hiring new partners just to work with their portfolio companies and match them to corporations. And as part of their transition to predictable processes, their founders may or may not still be at the helm. Predicting Success or Failure of an Acquisition.

Acquisition 332

Acquisition Intellectual Property Silicon Valley Startup 332

ReadWriteStart

MAY 21, 2013

As a one-man founder bootstrapping the business, this allowed me to hire a team for much less money. Then, in the evening – as the team returned from their lunch – I would concentrate on working with them in real time over Skype on building our product. Contract Remote Teams On A Per Project Basis.

CTO Hire 60

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Singapore India 60

Both Sides of the Table

NOVEMBER 19, 2009

You’re sales person is getting blocked by the CTO who says she shouldn’t go above him but the CTO isn’t approving the deal. But “he didn’t have the budget to hire a developer until he had raised money!&#. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers? He looked stunned. Charts.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 20, 2011

Startups that come to me and ask me to sign an NDA in order to get Free Startup CTO Consulting really are missing it. Feld: You seem to be operating from a perspective of “implied suspicion.” I don’t work this way – I much prefer to operate from a perspective of “implied trust.” But generally I'm going to favor being open.

NDA 211

NDA Stealth Intellectual Property Non-disclosure Agreement 211