Session 4 of the Summer Startup Academy has come and gone – but not without some great insight and conversation. In this presentation, John Avery, engineering group manager at Panasonic Innovation Center, shares his extensive experience in the technology arena. He's worked with and some of the most advance technology on the planet.

1. {
Hacker to CTO
John Avery
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#StartupAcademy
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2. 80-86 Ga Tech (BEE)
87-92 LXE (in building wireless data)
92-96 Panasonic (in building wireless voice)
96-99 Convergence (acquired by Amazon)
99-00 Amazon (Mobile -> web services)
00-01 Onboard Wireless (LBS for boaters failed)
01-05 Mobliss (acquired by Index)
05-06 MediaGet (Smartphone for home. failed)
06-08 Onboard Now (NRL machine vision)
08- Panasonic Automotive
Background
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3. 80-86 Ga Tech (BEE)
87-92 LXE (in building wireless data)
92-96 Panasonic (in building wireless voice)
96-99 Convergence (acquired by Amazon)
99-00 Amazon (Mobile -> web services)
00-01 Onboard Wireless (LBS for boaters failed)
01-05 Mobliss (acquired by Index)
05-06 MediaGet (Smartphone for home. failed)
06-08 Onboard Now (NRL machine vision)
08- Panasonic Automotive
Background
Always a Hacker/Coder
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@hypepotamus

4. What it’s like
From Jen Bonnett’s presentation
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5. What it’s like
From Jen Bonnett’s presentation
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6. Convergence (96-99) #StartupAcademy
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7. Keeping the lights on:
Numeric pager software
Browser / phone / email device for home
Bluetooth Early Entrant Program
Web to Wireless transcoding system
12 people at acquisition
Convergence (96-99) #StartupAcademy
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8. Convergence (96-99) #StartupAcademy
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9. Mobliss (01-05) #StartupAcademy
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10. Mobliss (01-05) #StartupAcademy
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11. Mobliss (01-05) #StartupAcademy
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12. Mobliss (01-05) #StartupAcademy
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13. 1. Bring Technical Credibility
People may like the Hustler but they don’t trust him
2. Set the Technical Culture
What it feels like to be an engineer
3. Answer ‚HOW‛
From Idea to Reality. Deliver the goods.
Hacker role #StartupAcademy
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14. People
Processes
Products
Scaling
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15. Recruiting takes a lot of time.
Give it the time it needs
Retention is important.
Focus on personal growth
Need for functional overlap
No ONE person should be required to deliver
Early developers will likely become managers
Encourage mentoring
People
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16. Amoeba to vertebrate
Structure is essential as company grows
Focus on interfaces
Clear ownership
Vertical or horizontal structure
Processes
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17. http://lean.mit.edu/downloads/cat_view/99-
presentations/83-lai-annual-conferences/208-2002-
plenary-conference
Organizational Structure
Organize horizontally
around technology
Or
Organize vertically
around customers
Neither is perfect. Both have tradeoffs. No magic answer.

18. CTO role is mainly about providing credibility
Say what you mean and mean what you say
It becomes more about people management.
Get training if you don’t have it.
Must be good at estimating effort/time.
It’s hard, start NOW!
Manage like a GPS
Clear destination but flexible about route
Keep moving!
Even when things aren’t clear there are things you can do
Your ‚product‛ becomes the company itself
Watch for bottlenecks and remove them
Stay off critical path but stay close to the technology
Bug fixing, customer service
Don’t need to solve all future problems just current
You will be wrong anyway, don’t waste time
Be the source of CALM in the storm.
CTO mojo (advanced class) #StartupAcademy
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19. Calm does not mean ignorant, but it is a choice
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20. Version control is essential. START NOW.
Architect for piecewise updates and fast rollback
Allows for faster A/B testing
Avoid blank-slate re-writes. It rarely works.
Continuous integration matters more as team grows
Get into a regular cycle. I like a weekly cadence.
Always release from source.
You will eventually need to debug ALL code, even open source.
Watch out for tribal knowledge. Focus on sustainable development.
Don’t be enamored with every shiny new thing
Use just the minimum you need
Battle ship vs cruise ship
One New Thing every day (not just interrupt driven)
Top Three projects. Always
Look for the 10x factor
CTO mojo (advanced class) #StartupAcademy
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21. 10x productivity
http://www.construx.com/10x_
Software_Development/Produ
ctivity_Variations_Among_Sof
tware_Developers_and_Teams
__The_Origin_of_10x/
Original study in the 60s:
- Coding time: 20x
- Debugging time: 25x
- Program size: 5x
- Program speed: 10x
Steve McConnell ‘08
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22. Example from 80s’
Lotus 123 v3 Excel 3.0
Development Time 260 staff years 50 staff years
Lines of code 400k 649k
LOC per staff year 1,500 13,000
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23. They don’t type 10x faster!
They don’t work 10x more hours!
They know and use coding tools very well
They know and use coding patterns very well
They reuse more code more often
They get better every day
reading lots other peoples code
reading blogs/books
HOW?
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24. Panasonic Automotive#StartupAcademy
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25. Panasonic Automotive#StartupAcademy
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