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How to Find a CTO for Your Startup: The 2025 Entrepreneur’s Guide

When building a startup, you have many options for software development. Whether you hire a team of developers, outsource to an agency, or find a CTO. While all of these options are viable, if you find a CTO with the right tech expertise, you’ll have gained a key player to help you succeed. But remember, if you pick the wrong CTO you won’t survive long – you may not even make it to launch. I bet you keep hearing that “Finding your dream CTO is not easy”. It’s true; it takes a lot of time and commitment. That’s why many founders spend years looking for the perfect person for the job, myself included. When I first started founding startups, I experienced the hurdles of finding a CTO first-hand. Over the last 14 years, I have built many projects. It took me more than 30 months and more than 300 headaches before I found the right guy for the job. But when I found him, he nailed it. And he kept on nailing it. Usually, the conflict is: You want to start building your MVP as soon as possible, so you might feel tempted to commit to the first decent option you find. On the other […]

Daniel de Castro Ruivo

Looking for Development

The Ultimate Startup Guide: From Ideation to MVP Launch & Beyond

Building a startup is a monumental feat, requiring a perfect blend of vision, strategy, and execution. Not to mention a comprehensive understanding of a laundry list of factors. Legal, sales, financing, marketing, building a team, technical knowledge, product expertise, and the list goes on. It can quickly become overwhelming to know what to focus on – and critically when to switch your focus for the good of your business. It’s something my team and I know a thing or two about. Our founding team have all launched their own startups in the past, and have been where you’re standing right now multiple times. More than that, since launching Altar, they’ve partnered with other entrepreneurs and business leaders, helping to bring over 70 startups to life using a tailored, proven process to create high-quality, user-centric software products that innovatively solve complex problems. Some of those companies raised money from Tiger Global and Disney – and went on to conquer their markets. Since I joined the team to lead the marketing efforts four years ago, and because we work mostly with entrepreneurs, my main goal has been to share valuable resources for startup founders looking to improve their chances of success and […]

3 Steps to Build a Successful MVP (Minimum Viable Product)

Building a startup! You have an epiphany and say to yourself: This is a great idea! How didn’t anyone think of it before? I have to build it! Now! Fair enough but, as I’m sure you’ve heard, there are many hurdles that can lead to startup failure if you’re not careful — and you want to be among the founders that avoid them. Maybe you’ve already read The Lean Startup. You’re already considering building a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) and getting your idea tested ASAP. While testing as much as possible (and testing quickly) is vital, should you rush to build the first idea that pops into your mind? The answers you’re looking for are just a few scrolls away! In this article, we will cover everything you need to know from the definition of an MVP to the process of building one. Contents What is an MVP? Before we dive into the benefits of an MVP and how to build an MVP, I wanted to startup off with a quick definition of MVP. A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is exactly what it says on the tin: the simplest version of your product with just enough features to validate your value proposition. No one has ever created “X”, I […]

Daniel de Castro Ruivo

Other articles

Has Generative AI Killed the Data Scientist?

10 years ago, becoming a data scientist was considered the job of the century. With the consolidation of the Web-2 network, users were not only data consumers but data producers. The need to manage, process and interpret this new form of gold was paramount and as such, hiring Data Scientists became a high priority for any company that consumed large amounts of data. These large amounts of user behaviours, network structures, content, demographics, psychographics and much more allowed companies to understand and predict human behaviour at levels never seen before. Data Scientists were at the front of the data stream process that allowed us to bring “life” to data. By “life”, I am metaphorically referring to Generative AI, as the ultimate emulation of human behaviour that AI has achieved. However, curiously, as in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the newly born creature, involuntary kills its creator. Between 2022 and 2023 over 500,000 layoffs occurred across all tech jobs globally, with over 30% of those layoffs affecting engineering and data science roles. This is not solely caused by high interest rates and their impact on the tech industry but also by the necessity for specialisation in this area, due to the rapid evolution […]

AI’s Unfulfilled Promise For Business Leaders: The Gap Between Potential and Practice

As companies navigate the digital transformation, the move towards Generative AI and AI enablement is becoming increasingly prominent. What began as grassroots adaptability has now escalated to a critical agenda item for top-level executives. It’s not just about pioneering startups harnessing this groundbreaking technology; well-established corporations are also exploring how to adopt it on a grander scale to drive business innovation and operational efficiency. According to PwC, 73% of US companies have integrated AI into some aspects of their operations, with generative AI (GenAI) being a key focus. However, the pressing question remains: Are they implementing it correctly? Developing an AI strategy for your company extends far beyond merely training employees to use tools like ChatGPT or creating a customer-facing chatbot. True AI enablement involves a deep understanding of AI capabilities and aligning them with specific business needs. It’s about adopting a holistic approach that marries a Product Mindset with an Operations Mindset, enabling businesses to transform inefficiencies and bottlenecks into streamlined, AI-driven processes. This comprehensive strategy paves the way for AI-driven innovation operational efficiency, setting the stage for a transformative impact across all facets of the company. Contents How Companies Are Currently Tackling AI Enablement Whilst companies are earnestly […]

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How I Recovered from Losing My Startup’s Technical Co-Founder

Embarking on the journey of building a tech startup from the ground up presents a unique set of challenges, especially for non-technical founders. The pivotal question that looms is: how do you bring your product to life? Essentially, you’re faced with three paths: Partnering with a tech co-founder Hiring talent (be that senior or junior) Outsourcing to a software development agency. Drawing from my own ventures as the founder of a tech startup, a B2C eCommerce startup in the wine industry, I can share a thing or two about that process that can help you avoid a world of pain. The end goal of our startup was to help users understand and discover the right wine for their taste. The challenge was to connect a traditional and offline world like the wine industry with an advanced digital experience to not only purchase but learn more about wine. As you can imagine, my co-founders and I were mostly involved in the operational and marketing side of the business but we rapidly understood we needed to provide an outstanding digital experience to differentiate ourselves. When it came to finding the right tech stakeholder, my journey wasn’t just about making a choice; it […]

Looking for Development

8 Steps to Setup Your Startup MVP for Success

A while back, I read an article from Sifted that talked about LinkedIn posts as indicators of what the next big thing in tech is or where we are in the cycle. 2021, they said, was characterised by exuberant “rocket ship” and “fire” emoji posts heralding the rise of unicorns. In contrast, 2022 was defined by the sombre “crying CEO” meme, reflecting the downturn in the tech market. In 2023, LinkedIn has witnessed a shift in focus. With many founders and builders hunkering down to weather the storm, the platform has become a stage for AI influencers and founders showcasing their innovative ChatGPT applications. However, the mood has taken an even more sombre turn in recent weeks, with an increasing number of “RIP” posts announcing the closure of startups. The current landscape is unforgiving, particularly for early-stage ventures setting out to launch a startup MVP. So if you’re about to start something new and want to stand a chance in the current market conditions you better be sure you’re building the right product to test the market and prove your assumptions. Throughout my career as a Product Manager, I’ve seen amazing projects die because they failed to ask the right […]

With Generative Web on the Horizon, is Your Product Due a UX Audit?

The evolution of the internet can be divided into consistent periods or generations that group a technological paradigm. We all have heard the terms Web1, Web2 and most recently Web3 when talking about the history of the Web (I’ll go into detail on all of them in just a bit). These terms represent a holistic vision of a certain relevant period (around a decade) and give an overview of the general case for the functioning of the products born during that time. Although technological development and user adoption are the key driving forces behind these paradigm shifts, the overall definition can be best noticed through an analysis of each period’s typical user experience (UX). Over the past one and a half years, the world has seen the emergence of Generative AI. Although this technology is not new, its massive adoption by the regular user was unseen until recently, with more than 30% of businesses in the US adopting AI in the workplace. Therefore, it’s time to reflect on the impact this will have on user behaviour and what experiences businesses will deliver to stay relevant in this new era to come. It’s still unclear but very likely that we are seeing the […]

12 Ways to Leverage ChatGPT-4 For Your Startup That You Can’t Ignore

This is João Ferrão dos Santos. For the last decade, he’s spent his time building, mentoring and funding startups. His journey includes raising an impressive €45M for his venture capital fund, Mustard Seed Maze. But it’s his latest venture, Aisthetics Apparel, that has him hitting headlines. He boldly appointed GPT4 as its CEO – a decision that reaped big rewards, turning his venture profitable in just a week! It generated €10,000 in revenue within five days, resulting in a profit of €7,000. If this sales trend continues, the AI predicts an annual profit of €40,000 and a company valuation of €4 million. GPT4 even outreached investors and managed to secure an additional €2,500 in funding. This story isn’t merely a quirky headline. It’s solid proof of AI’s massive impact on the entrepreneurial sphere. While an AI CEO may seem a bit sci-fi, it highlights the broad capabilities of tools like ChatGPT-4. But there’s loads more ChatGPT-4 can do besides being your CEO. It’s like a Swiss Army knife – from sparking that initial idea to breaking into the global market, it’s got your back at every turn. I’ll explore how it can help in creating compelling content, automating customer support, developing products, and even […]

Jamie Russell-Curtis