I've worked with John in the past and will happily vouch for his expertise. Over the past several years John has worked with a broad variety of start-ups in the early-to-mid development stage on both sides of the Atlantic. He's come away with a great understanding of the challenges start-up founders face leading up to launch.
I regularly turn to him for advice on engineering management. I'll definitely be buying this book.
(For the record, John didn't ask me to write this nor did he know I was going to.)
Seconded – I've worked with him and he's very knowledgeable about architecture and startups – already bought the book and looking forward to reading it.
Thirded! If anyone knows what it takes to get things off the ground, it's Mr. McDowall. He's assembled a pretty interesting cross-section of the startup crowd here - keenly looking forward to reading this myself.
I regularly turn to him for advice on engineering management. I'll definitely be buying this book.
(For the record, John didn't ask me to write this nor did he know I was going to.)