Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity CTO Hire 281

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 260

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. He would have found somebody technical and inspired that individual to work for equity or deferred payment. Should she take a chance and potentially ruffle feathers?

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

His goal was to find a programmer who would come in as an early partner and work as an Equity-Only Developer. Have you tested the concept with customers using paper? Have you signed some test customers? Don't try to hunting programmers until you've pushed this as far as you can on paper and get early customers.

Fractional CTO 349

Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 349

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 253

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

A Part-Time CTO Technology. Flexibility - You won’t need to commit to something, either cash, equity or involving other people, upfront. Cons: Money - Unless you have cash to pay, the pool of developers willing to work for equity is small. In Plain English. Archive Jun 20th Sun In-House or Outsource?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

SoCal CTO

SEPTEMBER 14, 2011

His goal was to find a programmer who would come in as an early partner and work as an Equity-Only Developer. Have you tested the concept with customers using paper? Have you signed some test customers? Don't try to hunting programmers until you've pushed this as far as you can on paper and get early customers.

Fractional CTO 296

Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

But the thing I am most proud of about Rob is that he has taken a company with a uniquely talented founder & CTO – Nick Halstead – and managed to build a very tight working relationship with Nick where we drive world-class product development without having the usual founder / CEO conflicts. Ask for short conference calls.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board CTO Hire Fractional CTO Los Angeles 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CIO) and a product lead (CTO). For a business, you must define the absolute minimum features you need to satisfy the customer problem, and test it in the market. Get a real customer and real revenue. Build qualified advisory board.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity CTO Hire Fractional CTO 222

SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. This is a novel user interaction that embeds casual entertainment directly into the operating system experience, based on some fairly interesting underlying technology. Tell Rod about the LA CTO Forum.

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

The second bullet, getting feedback from customers is most often not valid either. Even with these, you will have paper-tested your MVP, but the reality is that customers will not be able to assess the value to them until they actually use it. Structure development contracts appropriately or directing the in-house team appropriately.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

It means they have to deal with finances and customers and investors and other things that aren’t what they love to do, which is building software. ” I believe that by this he means they want cash rather than equity. They can make good money consulting or working as an employee of another company. Good riddance.

Technical Cofounder 42

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Software Engineering Fractional CTO 42

SoCal CTO

MARCH 4, 2010

I’ve worked with 30+ early-stage companies in all sorts of capacities (and spoken to many, many more), so I thought it might be worthwhile trying to classify the various ways that I’ve engaged in different technology roles in startups. Actually, David’s taking even broader roles than I generally do as he’s CEO for at least one startup.

Technical Review 170

Technical Review Fractional CTO Technology CTO Hire 170

David Teten

JUNE 6, 2011

My rough notes follow: Mike Dubno , CIO, Global Markets and Research Technology & Operations, Bank of America. Previously CTO, Goldman Sachs. Panel: Cary Davis , Managing Director, Warburg Pincus, Moderator: Ben Fried, Chief Information Officer, Google, runs in-house technology. Introductory remarks.

Fractional CTO 122

Fractional CTO CTO CTO Hire Azure 122

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Equity-Only CTO and Equity-Only Developers - SoCal CTO , November 1, 2010 I had a recent email dialog with the founder of a company looking for a CTO for their startup. can feel you now—corporate recruiters at career fairs, sending offer letters to work at banks and consulting firms. But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

David Teten

OCTOBER 1, 2015

Not surprisingly, the list above also is ranked from least to most equity stake in an investment for the investor, relative to the cash they invest. How would one set up such a startup to eventually raise capital from outside VCs, who will be wary of ‘dead equity’ (i.e., equity that belongs to departed cofounders)? The cliffs?

Software Developers 60

Software Developers Software Development Software Review Technical Cofounder 60

www.quora.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Type to Add and Search Questions; Search Topics and People Startups Startup Compensation Entrepreneurship Compensation Stock Options Major Internet Companies Silicon Valley Why is there such a large founder to early employee equity drop-off? They've got a handful of customers, maybe a few thousand users, and some initial traction.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

ConversionXL

MAY 14, 2014

Sendi Widjaja, CTO of Avvo, first brought up CRO when he realized that different page types converted ad clicks differently. Customers searching for legal advice are usually performing information searches, while customers searching for lawyers in a specific region or practice are likely conducting transaction searches.

Conversion 124

Conversion eCommerce Technical Review Software Review 124

David Teten

JUNE 12, 2011

Chairman Alan Todd was formerly Founder and CEO of KnowledgePlanet, the largest cloud-based learning management system, which was acquired by a private equity consortium; and Founder and CEO of KnowledgeSoft, the largest IT training company in the mid-Atlantic region, which was acquired by Technicsource. PrimeriCare Ventures (dba symbeo).

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Private Equity Fractional CTO Cofounder 84

Startup Lessons Learned

SEPTEMBER 7, 2011

People who would never bother with an entrepreneur’s blog, who may not even see themselves as entrepreneurs: shopkeepers and policy makers, CFO’s and private equity managers, and even future entrepreneurs. Almost any startup - in any industry - can use AWS to find and serve customers. customers to have goods delivered to a U.S.

Lean 167

Lean United States Startup SEO 167

www.chubbybrain.com

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011

The negativity either impacted investment funding (venture capital fell off a cliff in 2009) or the customers they were targeted as was the case for Untitled Partners who were building a platform for fractional art ownership. The first being that there has to be congruence between your startup’s concept and location.

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

Here’s how the pitch sounds from the engineer’s perspective: ‘For ten whole percent of equity, you will slave away to build a prototype out of my shitty idea, not have any say in the decision-making process…and oh yeah, you could be fired at any point.’ Date for a bit, then split the equity. Learned a lot.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

But as any programmer will tell you (I’m one), any lucrative contract or full time job you can get, especially these days, will usually leave you so burnt out by the end of the day that the last thing you will want to do is sit down and bang out more code. This happens a lot. Better still, write your own post :) Ron Amen.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

" => I have not bothered to put up a landing page, survey to test customer demand, or done any customer development whatsoever. Someone who is egotistical enough to call themselves a rockstar, yet humble enough not to want 99% of the equity? Developer, engineer, CTO, or technical co-founder? Rockstar v.

Developer 42

Developer Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder 42

Austin Startup

MARCH 7, 2018

Joseph Kopser (@JosephKopser) | Twitter Barbary Brunner CEO Austin Technology Council A self-described, “Geek Girl”, Barbary Brunner’s 25-year career includes senior executive roles at world-wide leading technology brands and a successful strategy and organizational development consultancy, prior to her joining the Austin Technology Council as CEO.

Technical Cofounder 48

Technical Cofounder Cofounder Fractional CTO CTO 48

sivers.org

JUNE 25, 2010

Also important: Only go for providers who have great reviews from many past customers. I also know someone else who consulted me about his website idea. Well as a programmer of many websites I find that it is easier for my clients to consult my ideas first. I do consult people, however I am not looking for work right now.

CTO Hire 84

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 84