Category Archives: Building Your Team

Methods of Working with Remote Developers

When you first start to plan the development of your Minimum Viable Product, one of the main issues to deal with is finding the right people to do your product development. Product development is usually done by a team of which one of the major components besides UEX designers are software developers or programming coders.

This article will deal with the complex issue of finding the right coders and how to manage the development process all while keeping in mind your timetable and budget constraints.

Methods of working with remote developers

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How to maintain delicate relations between investors and founders

This article expands a bit the issue of the kinds of relationships there are between investors and founders. How to manage the respective roles as, as either a founder of a startup or as an investor in a venture, is a major issue that needs to be rightly managed in early seed ventures and startups in general in order to achieve success.

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How to jumpstart your vision

Right now I am busy helping to bootstrap a new startup that has a unique idea and niche market aimed for middle-aged women. In this article, I would like to share the process we are going though and how we are in the early stages of forming our team and approaching seed investors.
Approaching seed investors is easy when you prepare your <a aria-describedby=tt href=https://jumpstartcto.com/glossary/wireframes/ class=wireframes and requirements documents in advance. Once you select the right team to develop your Minimum Viable Product, potential investors will come to you." width="600" height="350" srcset="" data-srcset="https://d2haskyseezqzi.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/focus-groups3.jpg 600w, https://d2haskyseezqzi.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/focus-groups3-300x175.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px"/>
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Formulating your Startup DNA

DNA usually refers to the fundamental and distinctive characteristics of someone or something, especially when it refers to those properties that are regarded as hereditary or unchangeable. The study of DNA is becoming a major field of science, and the study of manipulating an organism’s DNA is becoming more and more possible. In business, we sometimes use the term DNA to describe an organization’s essential qualities and therefore study its non-organic DNA as a way to try to improve an organization’s behavior as well as to be able to predict, or sometimes even change, those qualities that lead to its success.

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Who is the Right CTO for You?

The Chief Technology Officer – is a rapidly evolving position in the business world. It exists the way technology itself does; adaptive, experimental and ever-changing but absolutely necessary in the current environment.

Because the position is fluid dependent on your business, and your customer needs, the job description for a Chief Technology Officer isn’t set in stone. Even your ideas when you begin the relationship will change, as you get feedback and gain experience as to what is working. Really, the idea of the CTO is a way of opening up your thought processes when it comes to your start-up.

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Hiring Your Team: The CTO

Each individual part of your team contributes to the whole and there in turn grows your business. They’re as important as your product or service, because nothing moves past the idea stage without your team.

One of the pieces of your puzzle may be hiring a Chief Technology Officer. A CTO can work on a consulting basis (Consulting CTO) or part-time (Part Time CTO); their goal is to build your technology platform, get it running to its optimal level, and then turn it over to a maintainer. The Chief Technology Officer is entrusted with a large part of your foundation – technology is the engine of most start-ups today. Hiring a CTO is one of your first “outside the box” decisions.

A CTO’s job is to create a unique technology plan for your business – to get the most of each dollar you invest in this all-important area. They are looking at who you are – and who you want to be – and tailoring the plan to your needs.

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Invaluable to Start-Ups: The Part Time CTO

You have a business plan. You have support staff. You have technology. You have capital.

So how about a Part-Time CTO?

When setting up your new business – regardless of budget – there are absolutes you must put into place. The structure of your start-up determines so much in those early days and missing a component can delay or derail success.

A Chief Technology Officer, isn’t on everyone’s list as a must-hire. In fact, it might seem a luxury to bring someone in who can design and develop a technology plan for your start-up. Read More …

Building A Team

When you hire your start-up’s initial staff, you are not just looking for employees. You are creating a team. They aren’t going to function as individuals – they are going to have to work together as a unit, combing what is the best about each of their skill sets and what they can do as a team.

A good team player is someone who can work with other personalities, able to combine their abilities with someone else’s and work towards a common goal. Communication is a huge part of making your start-up work; you can’t keep track of every detail so it’s up to individual team members to share their progress and concerns with others, so everything is addressed quickly and efficiently.

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Hiring People With Your Vision

As you build the foundation of your start-up, there is no human resources department to foist off interviewing to. At this point in your company’s creation, every person you hire is in a unique position to influence its success. No redundancy, no safety nets.

This moment is about hiring the right people.

A resume can give you a quick overview, a timeline of someone’s career. But when it comes to hiring for your start-up, throw the resume away.

At this critical juncture, hiring isn’t about words on a page. It’s not even about filling a position. It’s about selecting pieces of the puzzle, slotting them together and making your start-up as strong as it can possibly be.

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Technology – Part of your Fundamentals.

Our ideas, our designs, our service, our product – they are the lifeblood of our start-up. When we’re ready to take the next step – the step into making them a reality, we want to make sure they are placed securely on a platform that will support, nurture and grow them.

Much like all the thought and care that went into the creation of our idea, we want to look at what surrounds them. Technology is such a huge part of this equation. An email is more important than a phone number, a website is a no-brainer. Would you even think to launch your business without an electronic presence?

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