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Sam McAfee

Oakland, CA

I am an experienced technology and product leader based in Oakland CA. I have been working in technology innovation in Silicon Valley since the first “dot com boom” in 2000. I combine strong engineering capability, team and organizational leadership skills, and a keen business acumen with a laser-like focus on core product development principles from leading product development methodologies like Agile and the Lean Startup.

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Marketing Growth Hacking Lean startup Technology Sales Web Applications Team Building Scalability Agile Methodologies System Architecture

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How to Get Your Technology Product Started

I will teach you a structured approach to iterate from an initial concept, to validating the target market, to developing an MVP that generates revenue.

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Reviews 9

Answers

Sam McAfee answered

I had an idea for an app I wanted developed and I found a developer that already has a loose working concept. How do I approach him to partner up?

I think it's important to understand your business goals before jumping into app development. Have you created a Lean Canvas or something like that? Do you know who the customer is and what they want? Has the developer built anything that they can show, even a mock-up or prototype? It's tempting to jump straight to building your idea, but I would caution you to think very carefully about the product/market fit first, doing some customer development, before you build too much. And, if you're on board with that approach, it's a great way to start the conversation with the developer, in terms of their willingness to also validate your assumptions before writing too much code.

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Developers

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Sam McAfee answered

How do I attract talent to a startup?

The very best talent are attracted to opportunities to do something awesome with other people that they admire and respect. In building a team, it is important to be very careful about your first hires, because it is they (and what you are doing) that will attract the next.

While the recruiting process is sort of a sales process, I disagree with the idea that you will need to "sell" your vision to talent. People judge you (and your organization) by your actions, and that means you need a good vision that practically sells itself. If you are not able to convince people to join you because the opportunity is just so awesome, you may need to think about doing something else.

You will also need to build a company, a team, a culture that makes the best talent want to work there. This means having an actual structure that enables creativity and innovation, working on only focused projects with clear objectives, having an open communication and feedback process.

Money does matter, and you need to compensate great talent fairly. It is better to pay a lot for a few very senior people than an army of remote or junior contributors. This is a fatal mistake I have seen many startups make. In the end you are building a company, and companies are made of people. That should take the lion's share of both your attention and your money.

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Sam McAfee answered

Is it better to get customers that will pay you more per project, but do less projects, or customers that pay less but do more projects (bulk)?

I think you are asking the wrong question. The real question is how to validate that customers are even interested in this service at all, and can you deliver it at a sufficient scale to be profitable in the long run. You are not really concerned about profitability in the beginning, so you're mostly pricing just to get the most customers possible to validate your hypothesis. Then, once you have a consistent, albeit small, demand for your service, you can begin to explore ways to scale and make delivery more cost effective.

Also be careful of learnings collected from early adopters. You'll run out of them eventually, and may need to adjust some of your business to serve the mass market. Best to figure out early how these early adopters differ, and how that affects long term profitability, even if you don't leverage that in the service right now.

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Early-stage Startups

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Reviews

Sam led the web engineering team at Change.org during a time of intense growth and change. He helped us to switch from an ad-hoc software development process to a Kanban process. He educated the team in the ways of lean software development. We continue to use the lessons Sam taught us on a regular basis, and it makes our engineering process much more effective and predictable.

Michael Arick Source: LinkedIn

I could have easily picked all of the attributes to describe Sam and his business partner. Great Results, Personable, Expert, Good Value,On time, High Integrity, and Creative. It is with mixed emotions that I recommend him and his company. I want them all to myself.

Max Duley Source: LinkedIn

Sam has shown a great deal of dedication to his craft and is all about working with his clients to really get down to what it is they want and have the ability to deliver.

He is not your average "developer". He leads his team as a technology strategist and values the feedback of his clients every step of the way.

I am glad to be working with a Radical Fusion and Sam's excellent work ethic on current and future projects.

Adam Helweh Source: LinkedIn

As technical founder of a fast-growing start-up company, I have a lot to thank Sam McAfee for. He helped me get started in software by seeing my potential and hiring me for my first real development work. I quickly rose to project management under his mentorship, learning a great deal from him about everything from software engineering, to leading and managing, to the subtle human side of working with clients.

Were it not for Sam, I'm not sure I'd be in the fantastic position I am today.

More important, he is simply a wonderful, great person. He may be the most fair-minded individual I've ever met. He's responsible, forceful when necessary (as leaders must sometimes be), yet in his heart he is fundamentally a gentle, loving soul.

Count yourself lucky if you ever have the chance to work with Sam McAfee.

Aaron Maxwell Source: LinkedIn

I worked for Sam for three years at Radical Fusion, and from the very beginning he was incredibly trusting, supportive, and collaborative.
He mentored me throughout either by showing me, explaining, sitting down and working with me, or suggesting books/articles.
He wanted all employees to continue growing and that included him. He has a passion for software and I haven't met anyone else in my career who reads as much as he does about software development, languages, software business, methodologies, etc. and everyone on the team benefits.

Lemuel Haham Source: LinkedIn

Sam hired me as a project manager at RadicalFusion and basically took me under his wing. Not only do I owe him for giving me the opportunity to learn the technical side of being a project manager but for teaching me how to embrace agile methodologies. He's made a convert out of me and I appreciate his passions for business and technology.

I have worked through the years with several company owners and Sam is, by far, the most pleasant and treasured of them all. His constant encouragement, gratitude, patience and guidance has made me a better person and employee.

Jamie Scanu Source: LinkedIn

A mentor asked me to write down a list of the ideal situation for writing code. Sam's company, RadicalFusion, hit every item on that list. At RadicalFusion coders are very well treated and well-mentored. They do TDD projects with 100% test coverage. They do pair programming so that knowledge is shared within groups. Also, because of the flat hierarchy at RadicalFusion every coder feels empowered. It is simply the best place I have worked. Sam brings leadership to the table through vision, using the latest lean and agile practices, and through example. He still codes, too. He manages by telling coders what to do and not micromanaging the "how." If you are lucky to have him as a client, he goes the extra mile to make sure your product is delivered to perfection. If there are any issues they are dealt with immediately and transparently. Every step of the way because of the process Sam put in place you know where your application is going. Apps developed at RadicalFusion have easily gone on to secure more funding. One great example is TeeSpy, the Groupon of Golf.

Jim Barcelona Source: LinkedIn

I have known Sam since 2007 and have worked on several interesting and challenging software projects with him. In fact, I developed my first real PHP application while working with him, which was extremely fortunate: he launched me straight into Object-Oriented PHP, PHP Frameworks, TDD and Scrum. Sam is very forward-thinking with an excellent knowledge of software, architecture and methodologies. In addition, he is a great person with amazing people skills. Oh, and he gets sole credit for truly demonstrating the value that TDD and CI adds when truly practiced. I would gladly work with him again.

HT Levine Source: LinkedIn

I have worked with Sam on a few database web development projects and he always get the job done right and exceeds my expectations.

Don Joslin Source: LinkedIn

Member since October 2013