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Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

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Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#1

Post by Perados »

I will get my Master's degree in Computer Science in March, and I was already looking for a stable job with a decent salary. But today I got a shocking offer from my boss.

I am currently working as a Software Engineer intern at a startup. This internship is like a final thesis for my Master's degree. And apparently, they saw my "enthusiasm" and want me to become the CTO of the startup, the problem is that I do not have that much experience, I have less than 2 years of professional experience (I am only 24 years old) and I only started coding 3 years ago! I really was looking for a stable job, just to get more experience, save some money and eventually become an entrepreneur and create my own company.

But this looks like a way too big jump for me. What if I fail? What if the startup fails because of me? Because basically every single engineer that I would hire would be smarter than me and would have more experience than me. However, none of them would be as motivated or enthusiast as me, I know that.

The other main problem would be my salary, which would basically be 0 $us until we get funded, which, according to my boss, could be in May 2016 or even before that.

This will be a life-changing decision for me, so please, I need your advice.

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#2

Post by im_down_w_otp »

With all due respect, if this is a tech startup. How good can its odds of success be if they're actually considering converting an intern into the CTO?

I mean, for me personally if I were interviewing there for a staff engineering position and I found out that they'd taken somebody with very little professional experience as an engineer, along with zero executive/leadership experience (director, VP, GM, etc.), and then made them CTO... I'd wonder what was wrong with the rest of the company leadership.

For reasons not the least of which are... when you go seek funding any half-way legitimate investor is almost certainly going to look at the leadership team, its prior experience, its successes, its failures, etc. Unless the thing you guys are doing is the world's most amazing product that's hyper defensible and hyper differentiated, then a huge component of what the investors are evaluating isn't the business or the product... it's the team.

But all that said, you'd learn a whole crapload from the experience, so perhaps it's best just to have at it.

About the only other thing I can say is... if you're having to ask this question in a public forum on the internet to a bunch of strangers, then that's probably a pretty useful indicator of your actual preparedness in and of itself.

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#3

Post by tixocloud »

While you may be young, you're smart. You already noticed that there's an issue with your lack of experience. The question is: How do you solve that issue?

Your success as CTO is mostly determined by yourself. Understand what's required of you. Start interviewing other CTOs at other startups and understand what their roles are and what they need to do. Build relationships with them so that you have a network of advisors if you ever need someone to have a chat with. Learn a lot. Do a lot of research. Do a lot of thinking.

Leadership is not all about experience. Leadership is also about listening. And all leaders start from somewhere. Once you have an open mind to learn, you'll realize that being a leader is about being courageous and responsible for the happiness of other people. It's also about helping to steer the ship in the right direction. But with all startups, you're making decisions on minimal information. What you need is a mind of learning. Test and learn and never assume you know it all. Then you'll be fine.

The salary issue is another big issue. Would it be worth to trade away your salary for the experience that you get? How will you survive? Do you have enough savings? Do you have a backup plan? If you're not getting any salary, then you should get significant amount of equity. And at this stage, as the CTO, will you also have to build the product? Job titles at early stage don't matter much.

Lastly, do you trust your boss enough that he will steer the ship correctly? Do you think he has what it takes to make it all work? And how is your relationship with him? Will he listen to your opinions or is he going to make all the decisions by himself?

Good luck

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#4

Post by jacquesm »

Your goals and the goals of your boss are not aligned. You need an income, you need to gain experience from people that already have that experience and you need stability. To become CTO of an unfunded start-up means that you will be the most experienced person, you will not be making any money and in the slightly longer run the company will probably fail.

'Until we get funded' translates into 'unfunded', and 'could be in May 2016 or even before that' translates into 'possibly never'.

If you don't have money in the bank and if you can't sit this out for a year or more and walk away without any scratches then I would strongly advise against taking this position, but be sure to thank them for the compliment. Join a start-up that is already funded instead, maybe not as the CTO but at least in a position where you can pick up the skills that you need.

Also, if you do take the position consider the very real possibility that you'll be ditched as soon as they can afford someone more experienced than an intern.

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#5

Post by Perados »

tixocloud wrote: post #3

While you may be young, you're smart. You already noticed that there's an issue with your lack of experience. The question is: How do you solve that issue? Your success as CTO is mostly determined by yourself. Understand what's required of you. Start interviewing other CTOs at other startups and understand what their roles are and what they need to do. Build relationships with them so that you have a network of advis…

My boss is a very experienced guy, he founded many companies and he is basically wanting to "test" me. At least that is what he says, but I definitely think he has what it takes to steer the ship correctly. We are currently being incubated, and all our mentors are very successful entrepreneurs and just by asking them the same question I posted here, I already learnt a lot.

How would I survive? A loan maybe? I can survive with less than 1000 $us a month. So far I've been surviving with a part-time job, but as a CTO I would need to work full time, so that would not be an option anymore. Savings? None. Backup plan? Well, getting a normal software engineering job, and an average life I guess.

Yes, I would probably have to help building the product as well. I am up to the challenge, it is just a little bit scary.

Thank you very much for your answer.

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#6

Post by shoo »

regarding your stated objectives:

  > I really was looking for a stable job
  > just to get more experience
  > save some money and
  > eventually become an entrepreneur and create my own company.
the first three objectives are short term. sounds like this offer gives you 1 / 3 -- the experience, nothing else. let's assume other organisations would be interested in your abilities and enthusiasm - if you can get an offer from an established company, you'll still be able to gain experience, and that'd give you 3/3.

Either way you can still pursue your own business(es) in future.

If you're going to work for this startup for no salary, you need to ensure that the rest of the deal is fair.

i'm somewhat jaded, so i'd suggest reading this: https://michaelochurch.wordpress.com/2012/07/08/dont-waste-y...

Re: Ask HN: Should I accept a CTO position without much experience?

#9

Post by danielvf »

It sounds like you are being given the opportunity to build someone else's Minimun Viable Product for free! And you would not even be getting founder part of ownership. And who knows if the CTO position is still yours after funding.

My biggest concern would be your boss(s). Do they joke about doing shady things before or in the future? Do they do drugs? Are they pathologically unable to talk about anything other than how much money this app/idea/business will make? Do they occasionally do dumb things like fund the start of the company by giving away 55% of the company in exchange for $300,000 from their soon the be ex-wife and her friends?

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