Ask HN: Getting Rid of the Founder?

I would assume I am misreading the social context.

YMMV. Good luck.

Knowing how to adopt an assertive mindset while maintaining your humility, and learning how to make and receive constructive criticism are key, in my opinion, to fostering an open dialogue that works to keep everyone on the same wavelength and more or less aligned with the common goals. It means everyone is comfortable with asking questions and raising concerns without fear of being met with hostility or an overly defensive posture. Issues are then addressed more quickly, before they can become entrenched problems, and without giving anyone an opportunity to stew about, nurturing resentments.

It sounds simple (and in many ways, it is) but it’s surprisingly counterintuitive, and usually requires conscious effort and practice before it becomes “normal”. Humans tend to be non-confrontational by nature, and practicing effective critique necessarily requires confrontations, albeit civil ones. I had a very small textbook from a college photography class I took that focused entirely on how to engage with criticism formally, and I believe that it made me a better photographer than any of the theoretical and practical study specific to photographs. I believe it also contributed significantly to my personal growth and professional development, as I became exponentially better at working with a team.

I tried to list some of the specific ideas that I took away from it, but it started to sound like a self-help advert, so I’ll leave it there. Learning to have hard discussions gracefully and pragmatically can be a superpower for a functional team.

Investors invest in a vision and people/teams. You're an employee, not the funded team. You may feel you're more than a wage taker, do the investors agree you are not a fungible coder?

Development isn't that hard. Hard CS gets done in environments that are not about pushing to market, that's commercial coding, mainly doing not hard stuff in a new environment. What's hard is linking everything, code, customers, vision, offline... The code is the essential but not that hard bit. Plus, are you blinkered to your contribution so much you cannot observe the vision. Just a coder doing the predictive, doable part where elsewhere chaos needs to be lived in.

Ask yourself these questions.

Hmmmmm.

I agree with other commenter - polish up your resume.

You can try to have a chat with them, but they'll hate you and you might get fired.

You can go to the investors, but they'll hate you and you might get fired.

You can send an anonymouse letter to ceo and/or investors and try not to get outed but seeing as how you're brave enough to post here you'll prob be first fired.

I don't think your situation is unique at all.

You can always quit, into another company or not.

If I'm your bestie, I'm saying, don't do shit. Let dictator run it into the ground. Amazingly, they might not. AI is so hot, if you got funding, you might be lucky enough to stick around.

Companies can survive and thrive with even a seemingly-catastrophic amount of mismanagement and chaos -- including nepotism and outright criminal activity.

KGTC keep getting them checks. save your money. start interviewing lightly. try to make it to the point the CEO either runs the company into the ground, or they are pushed out by the investors.