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How Sin-Mei Tsai, Shippo’s VP of Engineering, Defines Code Quality

Version One Ventures

This time, I am very excited to introduce Sin-Mei Tsai , VP of Engineering at Shippo , a Version One portfolio company. Instead of asking three questions as we did with Bala, we’re going to take a very deep dive into a critical topic: code quality. How do you define code quality? Functional quality.

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What does a Head of People do? Learning from Ada’s Chelsea MacDonald

Version One Ventures

And Sin-Mei Tsai , VP of Engineering at Shippo, discussed code quality. And she has just about completed 60 to 140 ( Ada is hiring !). Unlike “traditional” departments such as Engineering, Product, Sales, Marketing, BD, Customer Support/Success, People is a relatively new leadership function.

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What is a CTO?

Austin Startup

Even when someone is aware of what a CTO does, they often have limited context due to the wide variety of CTO roles. A CTO will guide your product strategy, market validation, architectural decisions, process optimization, recruiting, and hiring. A CTO’s real value is in finding opportunities with asymmetric payoffs.

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Yes, but who said they'd actually BUY the damn thing?

A Smart Bear: Startups and Marketing for Geeks

If you can't find ten people who say they'll buy it, your company is bullshit. I say "find ten people who say they'll buy." If the VP of Engineering thinks the target customer is just like him/her, you're doomed. If there are millions, it's trivial to find ten. Short-sighted, no? But you're still not listening.

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Lessons Learned: What does a startup CTO actually do?

Startup Lessons Learned

So what does CTO mean, besides just "technical founder who really cant manage anyone?" I always assumed I wouldnt manage anybody. Being a manager didnt sound fun - deep down, who really wants to be held accountable for other peoples actions? So I initially gravitated to the CTO title, and not VP of Engineering.

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Reincubate: Blog: Chief Technology Officer job description (for web, start-up or corporate)

www.reincubate.com

Start-ups often hire at one extreme -- closer to a Lead Developer or VP of Engineering -- whereas corporates may focus on their CIO, which is potentially quite a different role. Strategic Report to the CEO or board as an active part of the senior management team. Firstly, theres no one-size-fits-all description.

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Do Job Specs Matter?

Seeing Both Sides

Today's post is brought to you by my friend, Paul Blumenfeld , a recruiter who is one of the most thoughtful people I know when it comes to hiring processes. Many hiring managers write a job spec that is heavy on wishes and low on real needs. I see two reasons for this discrepancy: Static Specs. Short and Sweet.