In December 2007, I described how I commonly take on an Acting CTO Role in a Start-up . I used an image from Roger Smith that describes the varying roles of a CTO as the company matures. However, I’ve now begun questioning how and what an early-stage / startup CTO should be. 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. I’ve been having discussions with several people recently about the role of the CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in very early stage companies.

In March 2007,  when Pownce launched, Twitter didn't have much of a head start. Leah promotes open source, APIs, and the Django web framework on her blog at leahculver.com . think, if I were to do a new start up or a different company, I would pick it in an area where there wasn’t such good competition, determined competition. We talked about more than Pownce and Twitter in this interview. Leah Culver is a developer who launched many projects.

UPDATE:  I’m setting up a new project on analytics.  One of the things I am passionate about is analytics and metrics. It was this experience that gave me the appreciation for the importance of metrics and the greater importance of making meaning of the data for decision making. While at one of my recent startups I developed a framework for startup growth metrics If you are interested in collaborating ping me on twitter @gammill.  It promises to be fun and interesting. ***********************************************************************