I just had an all-too common conversation with the founder of a startup who had spent more than a year working with a software development company who had produced a mess. The mess really comes from a developer who was willing to get started on a product that was not fully thought out. I always take a very different approach in early conversations. If I’m being asked to do startup software development, Some founders are taken aback. They are calling me to go build what they tell me to build.

Most often at the earliest point in the life of a startup, the dominant need is certainly to produce product to get something in the market, get funding, etc. That’s why Roger Smith puts the focus of the CTO on programming for the earliest stage. What worries me a bit is how often I read that startups should hire a developer / hands-on lead developer. But often the result of a Founder hiring a developer I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies. In December 2007, I described

Marcus Nelson is the co-founder of UserVoice and is responsible for the company’s business development and marketing. 8220;We were basically the online suggestion box for product development. It’s only talking about people who are developing products–which is a very narrow corridor–and most of the people who are building stuff, don’t have a lot of money. “So If you read the recent announcement that UserVoice riased, $800,000 this program will help you learn the small changes that allowed them to do it. Marcus Nelson, the company’s

Without much fanfare -- or outside funding -- he built his community of booklovers to 650,000 members. And Goodreads, before it got any outside funding, it was him, just building this thing up. On his own, and then he went out an got funding. It actually started Here's an easy way to vote for this interview on Hacker News. --Andrew Andrew

Very few people fund individuals.  I Professional angels / former entrepreneurs / seed funds – In Silicon Valley there are people like Ron Conway, Jeff Clavier, Mike Maples and many more.  In Do you work as a civil engineer on water projects and have great access to wealthy project developers?  The And whenever I This is part of my ongoing series Pitching a VC . Last night I attended a DealMaker Media (whom I love because they always host such great discussions) panel on raising angel money moderated by Dan Gould and with panelists Rob Hayes (First Round Capital,

There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The This is part of my ongoing series “Pitching a VC“. There’s The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests.  That That prompted Fred Wilson’s blog [...] ...Tags:

There’s a great meme developing this morning on the need to simplify funding terms and documents.  The believe that there is a new breed of VC emerging including True Ventures, Founder’s Fund, Union Square Ventures, Foundry Group and several others that have this founder / investor alignment ethos.  I This is part of my ongoing series “ Pitching a VC “. The meme was kicked off by Chris Dixon with this post saying that term sheets need to be simplified and align investor / founder interests.  That

Sebastian’s Pamphlets If you’ve read my articles somewhere on the Internet, expect something different here. Shortcut: sebastian-x.com Blog About Blogroll Links How brain-amputated developers created the social media plague Posted on 12 January, 2010 The bot playground commonly refered to as “social media” is responsible for shitloads of absurd cretinism. Their developers are just too fucking lazy to understand such protocols that

Santa Monica-based Zag , which has developed an automobile configuration and buying service for affinity organizations like credit unions and automobile organizations, has a funding round of undisclosed size. Apparently, the company was a victim of TechCrunch's Arrington's crusade against PR embargoes, and disclosed the funding based on preliminary discussions with the firm. A spokesperson for Zag told socalTECH that a round had closed, but would not confirm the investors or details of the round, saying that earlier disclosures by TechCrunch were incorrect.

Search engine giant Google announced Tuesday that the firm is funding a number of University research projects, including a group of researchers at UC San Diego, a researcher at UC Santa Barbara, and a researcher in Los Angeles. as part of its Google Focused Research Awards, to help fund research in ares of study that are of key interest to the company. Google said that the firm is awarding a total of $5.7M Among the 12 projects, which include 31 professors at 10 universities, are one on the use of mobile phones as data collection devices for public health an environmental monitoring,