SoCal CTO

NOVEMBER 10, 2009

He has a really interesting background as a product manager and now an entrepreneur. Like many product managers, my background is fairly eclectic. That's where I learned I enjoyed interacting with customers and working with development teams to build and launch products. Tell me a bit about your background. How did it help you?

Management 150

Management Product Entrepreneur Silicon Valley 150

Startup Professionals Musings

SEPTEMBER 30, 2013

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ship a minimum product now. For a true scientist, the product is never good enough, so it’s never done.

Intellectual Property 281

Intellectual Property Entrepreneur Sweat Equity Fractional CTO 281

www.avc.com

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011

Employee Equity: How Much? The most common comment in this long and complicated MBA Mondays series on Employee Equity is the question of how much equity should you grant when you make a hire. And the amount of equity you need to grant to accomplish these hires is also an art and most certainly not a science.

Equity 64

Equity Employee CTO Hire Fractional CTO 64

Startup Professionals Musings

AUGUST 31, 2012

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ship a minimum product now. For a true scientist, the product is never good enough, so it’s never done.

Intellectual Property 260

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity Fractional CTO CTO Hire 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. He went out and found a developer and built a product.

Entrepreneur 414

Entrepreneur Fractional CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 414

blog.aparttimecto.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

A Part-Time CTO Technology. One of the main challenges of starting a products based company is how do you build your product? This is especially true of web based companies, whose product consists of mainly a web site and very little more. In Plain English. Archive Jun 20th Sun In-House or Outsource?

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire Fractional CTO Equity Vesting 40

Startup Professionals Musings

JUNE 17, 2011

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CFO) and a product lead (CTO). Ship a minimum product now. For a true scientist, the product is never good enough, so it’s never done.

Intellectual Property 253

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity Fractional CTO CTO Hire 253

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. Do you know the relative effort to build your prototype or minimum viable product? At that point, you can't really just try to find someone to build it on the side, do equity only, etc. Ask a few CTO type people.

Fractional CTO 349

Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 349

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. Do you know the relative effort to build your prototype or minimum viable product? At that point, you can't really just try to find someone to build it on the side, do equity only, etc. Ask a few CTO type people.

Fractional CTO 296

Fractional CTO Southern California Startup Mobile 296

Both Sides of the Table

MAY 27, 2013

In this period (less than 2 years) he has brought on incredibly talented senior execs is sales, marketing, product management, client services, finance, vp engineering and more. Trust me – that kind of encounter can mean the difference between securing a contract, protecting yourself from getting turfed or getting acquired one day.

Advisory Board 365

Advisory Board Fractional CTO CTO Hire Los Angeles 365

Startup Professionals Musings

MAY 22, 2010

If you have a product description, that’s necessary, but not sufficient. A CEO who has “been there and done that” is traction, especially if teamed with a financial lead (CIO) and a product lead (CTO). Ship a minimum product now. For a true scientist, the product is never good enough, so it’s never done.

Intellectual Property 222

Intellectual Property Sweat Equity Fractional CTO CTO Hire 222

SoCal CTO

FEBRUARY 13, 2013

Investors my tell you that, but what they can look at your product on paper and tell what it does and they will understand if it can be built. Leverage Existing Platforms or Third Party Products - you want to test your social network, grab Drupal and whip something together, or even just use a hosted service.

Technical Cofounder 338

Technical Cofounder Technical Review CTO Hire Fractional CTO 338

SoCal CTO

APRIL 28, 2014

they need a developer more than they need a CTO. What happens when you have a really good developer is that a gap exists where you may not ask the right questions to specify the right system, consider appropriate 3rd party technologies, etc. As a founder, you do need to be telling the developers what the business and product goals are.

Technical Cofounder 280

Technical Cofounder Developer Fractional CTO CTO Hire 280

SoCal CTO

DECEMBER 1, 2010

I continue to collect great content that is the intersection of startups, products, online and technology. 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. But I don’t think so.

Technical Review 175

Technical Review Technology Product CTO Hire 175

www.scottporad.com

NOVEMBER 15, 2010

In fact, that’s exactly how I ended up at Cheezburger—a friend of a friend introduced me to one of the angels who had invested, who then introduced me to the founder (who needed a CTO). I’m a fan of “don’t keep the idea super secret; share it, someone may be willing to help/make it a better product.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO Developer Philadelphia Seattle 40

rob.by

MARCH 8, 2012

” I believe that by this he means they want cash rather than equity. My hunch is that most good software engineers only work for cash because they don’t feel that working for equity is worth the risk of failure. They can make good money consulting or working as an employee of another company. What is the product?

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

thinkspace.com

SEPTEMBER 7, 2012

Office Space. Virtual Office. How to Divide Equity to Startup Founders, Advisors, and Employees. The part that I’d like to zero in on is when you’ve got a high growth company what are some of the best practices out there to distribute equity to the founders, advisors, and employees? Equity for Founders.

Equity 62

Equity Employee Founder CTO Hire 62

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

blog.captainrecruiter.com

MARCH 8, 2012

It's not a question of me being unwilling to work for equity -- I am. Also hire offshore devs to assist you in building your product. Reply Delete flyingnome Aug 15, 2010 05:30 PM Try to make a product that is just as easy to sell to a technical co-founder as it is to a VC or Angel. Raising cash is an easy test.

Cofounder 40

Cofounder Technical Cofounder Founder Software Engineering 40

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? This ties into this Paul Graham article: [link] /equity. This answer.

Equity 40

Equity Employee Founder Cofounder 40

Business Plan Blog

OCTOBER 4, 2013

If you have a technical background and you are focused on product development, consider a co-founder with a sales and marketing background that can focus on selling your world class product. Rather, give titles such as VP of Engineering, Product/Technology, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc.

Part-Time VPE 79

Part-Time VPE Fractional VPE Cofounder CTO Hire 79

www.reincubate.com

FEBRUARY 1, 2010

Languages like Tcl -- which powered Vignette s CMS products in the dotcom heyday -- are now rather unusual in web development. However, Java is not a particularly productive language to work with, and many elements of functionality can be delivered more rapidly in the other languages. framework was built.

Fractional CTO 40

Fractional CTO CTO Technical Review CTO Hire 40

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. Grovo solves this problem.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Private Equity Fractional CTO Cofounder 84

ConversionXL

MAY 14, 2014

Avvo – a legal directory, free legal advice, and lawyer Q&A platform – began focusing on CRO as they transitioned from developing a great product that started growing organically, likely due to finding product/market fit. Meanwhile this company gets bought by a private equity group who installs a new CEO.

Conversion 124

Conversion eCommerce Technical Review Software Review 124

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. This is a very specific audience dictated by my decision not to build a consumer product. #17

Cofounder 89

Cofounder Startup Technical Cofounder CTO Hire 89

www.metamorphblog.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

The difference between your initial idea and your ultimate product is the difference between a slab of rock and the David. Date for a bit, then split the equity. You may or may not have a working product. Your product may or may not suck. When you’re hiring folks, don’t promise equity upfront.

Founder 51

Founder Startup Cofounder Vesting 51

techcrunch.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

So for this first post, here’s the best advice I can give you: join an awesome founding team and get your product out the door ASAP. But six months in, you’re gonna cry when you see someone else put out that same product you’re pitching me right now. Like I said, forget everything else and just get your product out the door.

Technical Review 84

Technical Review Cofounder Technical Cofounder Software Review 84

www.collegemogul.com

OCTOBER 23, 2010

For additional advice, I recommend reading " Finding a Technical Partner for your Startup ), by Daniel Kehoe, a CTO Consultant, who was kind enough to hear my struggles out and offered advice suggesting that we should supplement our current Advisory Board with a Technical Advisor. Starting a company while being a student is tough.

Technical Review 40

Technical Review Web Development Web Developer 40

www.quora.com

JANUARY 16, 2011

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? " If you just have an idea, my advice is to outsource the dev of the minimum viable product to someone on RentaCoder or GetaCoder. This person does not exist.

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

is what we call the Minimum Viable Product (MVP). Dont wait 4 weeks or more while programmers are "building features" If they cant deploy new features into production at least twice a week, dont use them. I also know someone else who consulted me about his website idea. Matt Cooke (2010-06-19) # Excellent process.

CTO Hire 84

CTO Hire Hiring Software Review Technical Review 84