1.
Get Your Product Moving
Founders Institute
November 2012
Tony Karrer, Ph.D.
CEO, TechEmpower, Inc.
akarrer@techempower.com
http://socalcto.com

2.
2
Background
• Ph.D. Computer Science, LMU Professor CS 10 Years
• Founder
– Sprinkler Systems Installation (age 15)
– Knowledge Stream ($59M exit)
– TechEmpower (1997 - present)
– Aggregage (2010 – present)
• Part-Time CTO / Technical Advisor
– Talk with 100+ startups each year

3.
3
Complexity of Your Product
Complex
> 12 Prog Mon
> $100K
Simple
< 3 Prog Mon
< $35K

4.
4
Simplify
Complex
> 12 Prog Mon
Simple
< 3 Prog Mon
• Simple Forum
• WordPress
• Manual Commerce

5.
5
Other Ways to “Simplify”
• Paper (More Next Slide)
• Smoke and Mirrors Prototype
• Fake Site
• Proof of Concept
• Minimum MVP
• Leverage Existing Platforms or Third Parties

6.
6
Homework - Before You Build Anything
• Steve Blank’s Startup Owner’s Manual
• Wireframes
• Graphic Comps – 99designs, eLance
• Test on Paper and Iterate
• Don’t Miss Key Questions
http://www.socalcto.com/2011/08/32-questions-developers-may-have-
forgot.html
– Targets/Mobile, Notifications, Email, Marketing Tracking, Analytics / Metrics /
Reporting, SEO Support, Social / Viral, Location, Time Zones, Video

7.
7
Complexity of Your Product
Complex
> 12 Prog Mon
Simple
< 3 Prog Mon
Equity Only Developer
Dedicated Technical Team
In House, Outsource,
Hybrid
Freelance Developer
Offshore Dice Roll

8.
8
Elusive (Illusive) Technical Cofounder

9.
9
Be Prepared When You Meet a Developer
• They Want
– Solve a problem, create something neat from scratch
– Learn something new
– Food and other Rewards
• Hate
– Salespeople / Being Sold
– Pretending to Know More Than You Know
– Not Knowing Enough
– Time Wasters - Don't talk too much. Stay on point. Only
go social when they go social.

10.
10
Founder Developer Gap
Founder Developer
Technical Advisor
Programmer Friend
Part-time CTO
GAP

11.
Get Your Product Moving
Founders Institute
November 2012
Tony Karrer, Ph.D.
CEO, TechEmpower, Inc.
akarrer@techempower.com
http://socalcto.com