SaaStr

JULY 2, 2020

Q: What makes a bad CTO? While there is no legal definition for CTO ?? or bright line between CTO and VPE, I’d suggest a start-up CTO really only has to do a few things — which are very hard: Assemble a small team (3–9) of very good engineers. So … a “bad” CTO is one that can’t recruit a strong “pizza box” team.

Part-Time VPE 359

Part-Time VPE CTO Engineering Scaling 359

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 19, 2020

IME, rough order to make hires in: VPM: $0.2m He asked which to hire first. If you have a few nickels in the bank, and you somehow find a great VP a half stage or even full stage early, just hire her. Hiring is so hard as it is. Make the hire now. ARR VPS: $1-$1.5m More here: [link].

Part-Time VPE 363

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring CTO Hire Scale 363

Valerian Tech

JANUARY 5, 2023

It can be beneficial to hire a fractional CTO (Chief Technology Officer) in a variety of situations. When you don't have an in-house technology leader: If you don't have a CTO or a similar technology leader on your team, a fractional CTO can fill that role.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 30, 2022

The role of a Fractional Chief Technology Officer (CTO) is to provide technical expertise and leadership to a company on a part-time or temporary basis. Technology vision and strategy: A fractional CTO is responsible for developing and implementing a long-term technology vision and strategy for the company.

Fractional CTO 52

Fractional CTO CTO Hire Part-Time CTO CTO 52

SaaStr

MAY 28, 2023

SaaStr 662: Things You Think as a First-Time Founder That Just Ain’t So With Lattice Co-Founder & CEO Jack Altman and SaaStr Founder & CEO Jason Lemkin  2. SaaStr 663: 9 Things I Wish I Would Have Told My 2013 Self: Lessons Learned from 9 Years with Heap’s Former CTO, Dan Robinson   3. appeared first on SaaStr.

CTO 221

CTO Sales Recruiting Compensation Startup 221

TurnKey Labs

SEPTEMBER 25, 2023

Chief Technology Officers (CTOs) play a critical role in steering technology-driven businesses and tech startups towards success. From keeping pace with ever-evolving technologies to leading development teams effectively, the responsibilities of a CTO are multifaceted.

CTO Coach 57

CTO Coach CTO CTO Hire Technology 57

Andreessen Horowitz

JUNE 14, 2023

It’s common for founders to assume the role of chief technology officer (CTO), who either runs the day-to-day work of engineering or focuses on a long-term technological vision. While this … The post Hiring a Senior Vice President of Engineering appeared first on Andreessen Horowitz.

VP of Engineering 75

VP of Engineering Part-Time CTO CTO CTO Hire 75

SaaStr

JANUARY 19, 2024

He made many great leadership points, but one in particular rattles around my head a lot and I think deserves its own post: You usually won’t know if you’ve made a 10x hire … when you make the hire. A good / great employee can become 10x in a new environment was part of Auren’s point. But I didn’t know they were truly 10x hires.

Sales Hiring 236

Sales Hiring CTO Hire New CTO CTO 236

SaaStr

JUNE 19, 2022

SaaStr 564: Top 10 Learnings Architecting a High Throughput Critical API with RevenueCat CTO Miguel Carranza. SaaStr 565: Classic Episode: The Importance of Company Values, a Great Hiring Process, and Ownership Culture with Gusto Co-Founder & CEO Josh Reeves. Product-Led Growth: Panacea or Boondoggle?

CTO Hire 222

CTO Hire CTO Sales Hiring Innovation 222

SaaStr

JUNE 26, 2022

Check out this week’s top blog posts, podcasts, and videos: Top Blog Posts This Week: Be Careful Hiring “Dualies” — Folks That Are a VP of More Than One Thing. SaaStr 565: Classic Episode: The Importance of Company Values, a Great Hiring Process, and Ownership Culture with Gusto Co-Founder & CEO Josh Reeves.

CTO Hire 239

CTO Hire CTO Sales Hiring Scale 239

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 17, 2023

Or at least where the co-founder CTO is a true equal partner to the CEO. You need to recruit a great engineering team. You’ve got to recruit a much bigger, and more expensive, engineering team in many cases. Unless again, you have a true CTO as well, that is also leading the company. But — Jobs had Woz.

Outsourcing Services 263

Outsourcing Services Engineering CTO Scale 263

SaaStr

SEPTEMBER 11, 2021

Lately I’ve been working with 5+ SaaS companies all hiring their first VP of Product. And critically, most have a really strong CEO-CTO partnership. A few general learnings: A VP of Product that Reports to CTO / Engineering Rarely Meets With That Many Customers. I just see this time and time again.

Part-Time VPE 300

Part-Time VPE Outsourcing Services CTO Hire CTO 300

SaaStr

JULY 18, 2022

Co-founder and CEO of Plato, Quong Hoang, the #1 mentoring platform for engineering leaders , helped moderate a discussion between CTO of Change.org, Elaine Zhou, and Head of Engineering at Notion, Michael Manapat, on this subject. On a purely human level, most employees like to settle down if they find a place that feels like home.

CTO Coach 240

CTO Coach CTO Hire New CTO CTO 240

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2023

I should have camped in his office and literally never taken No for an answer. I had a great CTO, but I also needed a truly great VPE to scale past $10m ARR and deal with all those issues. Not finding a way to work through team conflicts better. Our CTO was amazing, but we didn’t work together as well as we should of.

Part-Time VPE 220

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting CTO Scale 220

SaaStr

NOVEMBER 16, 2021

You’ll need to hire aggressively to get to the next level and continue that rapid growth. But what roles should you hire for, and what will your org chart look like at each stage? You can find the full slide deck from David’s presentation on Slideshare. Positions Needed: FP&A Analyst, Accountant, HR, Ops, Recruiter.

CTO Hire 260

CTO Hire Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting CTO 260

SaaStr

APRIL 4, 2024

Dear SaaStr: I’m Being Recruited by a Startup That Just Raised $5m. I’d suggest a quick 2 part test: #1. Decide if the CEO is literally a 10/10 and ideally the CTO If you aren’t sure the CEO is truly great, and ideally, the CTO, then ask around. How Do I Vet Them? That’s never as easy at it sounds.

Sales Recruiting 228

Sales Recruiting CTO Startup Sales 228

SaaStr

JUNE 23, 2020

In SaaS, it is recruiting your VPs and management team : SaaS products mostly don’t sell themselves. You can hack managing and finding 1–3 reps yourself, but after that, you really need a VP of Sales. 95% of the time, your super-smart hacker co-founder is not that person. She can be your CTO forever.

Part-Time VPE 241

Part-Time VPE CTO Hire Fractional VPE Sales Recruiting 241

SaaStr

JANUARY 27, 2024

There are other reasons startups something do “Good But Not Great” or just OK, but that don’t lead to failure IMHE: Great CEO, Merely Good CTO. Can’t Recruit a Great VP Team / Only Able to Recruit Mediocre VPs. Some founders can do a lot on their own with a small team, but just never recruit great VPs.

Startup 233

Startup Scale CTO Pricing 233

Valerian Tech

DECEMBER 14, 2022

There are many benefits to hiring a fractional CTO, also known as a part-time or interim CTO. A fractional CTO can bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to your organization without the added expense of a full-time executive.

CTO Hire 52

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Technology 52

TechEmpower SaaS

DECEMBER 11, 2023

While the appearance matters, remember you are hiring the development firm primarily for its development skills, not its graphic design skills. cto , product , saas Quality of Work: The end product should not only look good but function as expected. Don't be charmed by an impressive aesthetic at the expense of functional results.

Software Development 443

Software Development Development Software Review Software 443

SaaStr

JULY 5, 2024

They hire a VP of Sales who doesn’t want to sell or learn the product. You also don’t want to hire a VP of Sales who won’t carry a bag. If you joined a startup at $2M and wanted to get to $6M with reps doing $400k, that VP of Sales would need to hire ten reps. 90% of the time, sales falls when a founder steps out of it.

CTO Hire 198

CTO Hire Sales Hiring New CTO AI 198

SaaStr

AUGUST 20, 2023

In my first start-up, there were literally only a handful of engineers who understood our technology. The best we made our CTO. But what if our CTO gets hit by a bus? They feed on each other, hire other toxic people, and turn the company against the mission and each other. Sometimes, still hire them. For a while.

CTO Hire 235

CTO Hire CTO Technology Engineering 235

SaaStr

MARCH 16, 2022

Jenn Knight, Co-founder and CTO of AgentSync, and Daryna Kulya, Co-founder of OpenPhone, discuss how different approaches have helped each brand reach its target audience and accomplish its goals, the potential of product-led growth, and how to scale growth strategies to yield desirable results.

New CTO 220

New CTO CTO Scale Innovation 220

SaaStr

AUGUST 9, 2022

Investments I've made that didn't work out: – Momentum investment – CEO a bit of bulls**t artist – CEO good at sales but weak product team / CTO. CEO good at sales, but CTO not that great. This was a bet I made a few times, and I learned. So now I try to only invest in Great CEO + Great CTO combos.

Investment 280

Investment Sales Recruiting CTO Startup 280

SaaStr

JANUARY 16, 2023

Hiring a reliable team is an all-encompassing issue where startups dive in head-first but fail to optimize it for success. . Hiring an expert produces 1000x better results than someone with interests elsewhere. . “A Hiring in a streamlined manner with a rigorous selection process initially builds momentum for long-term goals.

Scale 219

Scale CTO Hire Cloud Scaling 219

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2022

SaaStr 603: SaaStr CRO Confidential Presents the Ultimate Guide to Sales Compensation, Quotas and Recruiting with SaaStr CEO and Founder, Jason Lemkin. SaaStr 600: Founder Confidential with HubSpot Founder and CTO Dharmesh Shah, & Founder and Executive Chairperson Brian Halligan. ?. Top Videos This Week: 1.

Sales Recruiting 284

Sales Recruiting CTO Compensation Software Review 284

SaaStr

JULY 31, 2022

An updated classic SaaStr guide on how to know if that new VP you worked so hard to find, recruit and get on board … is really going to make it. 4 Signs You Might Have a “Bad” CTO — Or At Least, One That Isn’t Going to Make It. And 3 Things Not to Worry So Much About. Here’s what to do about it.

New CTO 263

New CTO CTO SMB Venture Capital 263

SaaStr

MAY 27, 2024

Investors should immediately engage with the CTO to assess their technical capabilities and potential, as great CTOs can demonstrate their exceptional skills quickly. The Qualities of Great CTOs (00:15:54) To identify great CTOs, it may take interviewing 20 candidates.

CTO Hire 220

CTO Hire Development Team Review Software Review Technical Review 220

Crafty CTO

FEBRUARY 7, 2023

I’ve learned so much … most importantly, I think, that I love being a fractional CTO, a role that allows me to make use of everything I’ve learned and experienced over a long technology-focused career. What’s changing, rather, is the entity I’m delivering through – a new company called Crafty CTO.

CTO Hire 40

CTO Hire New CTO CTO Headcount 40

SaaStr

MAY 3, 2021

And if your team knows how to spend it, correctly — find a way to get them the capital they need to grow even faster than plan. And importantly, you need to spend more time with your existing customers (vs. But even if you’ve hired the world’s best VP of Sales … you can’t opt out of sales entirely.

Part-Time VPE 273

Part-Time VPE Sales Hiring Sales Recruiting Outsourcing Services 273

SaaStr

FEBRUARY 1, 2022

Or at least — where the co-founder CTO is a true equal partner to the CEO. You need to recruit a great engineering team. You need to pay up to recruit a “technical co-founder” and then she often will bring in 2x the engineers, at a higher price, than an engineer CEO. I’ve found that works equally well. How to be super agile.

Outsourcing Services 199

Outsourcing Services Engineering CTO SaaS 199

SaaStr

JULY 23, 2021

Brian Peterson, CTO @ Dialpad. Tolithia Kornweibel, Chief Revenue Officer @Gusto. Dave Walters, CTO, Hired. Christa Diaz, Senior Director, Customer Success, Hired. Amy Pisano, CRO, Hired. Jenn Knight, Co-Founder, CTO, AgentSync. Zach Kitschke, CMO, Canva. Zeb Evans, Founder & CEO, ClickUp.

VP of Engineering 273

VP of Engineering New CTO CTO Hire Sales Hiring 273

SaaStr

MARCH 7, 2021

I thought it would be worth drilling down deeper into each of them, and sharing the learnings and mistakes: 1/ Spending less time fixing things, more time recruiting senior folks to own them. No one spends enough time recruiting as it is, after $1m ARR or so. These are all full-time jobs by $1m ARR.

Part-Time VPE 275

Part-Time VPE Sales Recruiting Sales Hiring Scale 275

SaaStr

APRIL 21, 2024

Wait and find a co-founder just as committed as you are. If you’re a “business” founder, know it’s really, really hard to win without a truly great CTO. At least, not to get enough paying customers from Code Zero. Almost always. Someone else great already has the same idea. Like, always.

Startup 287

Startup CTO SaaS Interviewing 287

SaaStr

OCTOBER 30, 2023

And the few that don’t generally had a founder that decided to bring someone else in themselves (often a CTO type): This doesn’t mean it is easy. I thought several times about bringing in a CEO to replace me at Adobe Sign / EchoSign. I know I get behind on recruiting. It never really gets easier. But I don’t now.

Technical Review 262

Technical Review CTO SaaS Scaling 262

SaaStr

DECEMBER 10, 2020

Hire not just 1-2 reps, but 10. That it’s time to bring in someone that knows. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. But I’ve found many great SaaS founders take longer, too long, to decide to hire the other VPs. I Need a VP of Sales.

Sales Hiring 361

Sales Hiring CTO Hire Sales Recruiting Scale 361

SaaStr

MARCH 5, 2023

Almost all of them had an amazing CTO or CPO, and hired a simply epic VP or two. Good but not great CEOs just can’t find a way to iterate fast enough. But what made them great: Ability to attract amazing co-founders and execs. Not just great, but epic. Ability to iterate pretty darn quickly. Not overnight. But eventually.

CTO Hire 235

CTO Hire CTO Investment Marketing 235