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The Secret History of Minnesota Part 1: Engineering Research Associates

Steve Blank

code breaking would grow to 20,000 people working on breaking the codes of Germany, Japan and the Soviet Union. Norris became the VP of Engineering, Engstrom the VP of Research, and Meader VP of Manufacturing. When they couldn’t find any customers they donated the ERA 1101 to Georgia Tech.

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Lessons Learned: The hacker's lament

Startup Lessons Learned

Its common to find a hacker at the heart of almost any successful technology company. And we cant hire new engineers any faster, because you cant be interviewing and debugging and fixing all at the same time! Even with the highest standards imaginable, theres no way to hire just genius hackers. Just change it.

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Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering. Instead, they find options and can communicate them to everyone in the company. Find the 80/20 - this was my favorite part of the job. I mean, have you seen other people? They might do anything ! But along the way, something strange happened.

CTO 168