Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#81

Post by 6cxs2hd6 » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:08 AM UTC

cantlookaway wrote: post #3

9oliYQjP wrote: post #2

First off, I'm sorry about your situation. Nobody here will be able to judge with any degree of accuracy whether he has a point. I personally would not look at this situation as a technical one; this is a business relationship situation. Regardless of whether there is any grain of truth, the CTO has lost confidence in you. Not just a little bit. He has asked you to leave. The rest of my advice assumes the CEO (your c…

Thank you for taking the time to respond. > The rest of my advice assumes the CEO (your co-founder) has quite a bit of confidence in the CTO. This is the case, it is in my interest however to remain in the company because my equity is vested, the sooner I leave the less I will get in return, apart from my time, and opportunity cost I invested all my personal wealth.

Your question and many of the comments so far tend to focus on the CTO. I'd like to focus on your co-founder, the "CEO".

If he wanted to start with a less-experienced technical person, and jettison them early on -- he could have hired an employee and paid them.

Instead he co-founded with you, as a partner. He was happy to take your money -- you have skin in the game. He doesn't get to shoo you out the door now like a temp.

He also doesn't get to do it via the CTO. He owes you a frank conversation. Also you need a lawyer.

tl;dr: From hearing your side of the story, although the CTO is handling this like a tool, the CEO is the biggest schmuck.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#82

Post by weixiyen » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:11 AM UTC

rubyfan wrote: post #26

anigbrowl wrote: post #5

He's trying to fuck you over. Remind him that he works for you, not the other way around. Start looking for his replacement. Check with a lawyer about the security of your own stake and make sure you are good with the business guy, because the CTO has probably been whispering poison in his ear about you.

+1 he works for you. He's got you ready leave because you doubt your abilities. It's one thing if your company needs all rock star engineers to make a product push but if it was that I'm sure you'd see it that way. That's an opportunity for you to shift focus to something else but it just doesn't sound like that. It sounds like he's trying to get rid of a technical founder. Don't let him.

yep and depending on your product, you might not even need a CTO until way later. Your ability to deliver a working product quickly and measure it's performance (metrics wise) is way more important than writing the best code evar.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#83

Post by rajacombinator » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:12 AM UTC

This CTO sounds like scum. He may be 100% correct but it's not appropriate for him to suggest you leaving. Your CEO should man up and fire this guy for starting political infighting. Otherwise the CEO will be ousted next.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#84

Post by asabjorn » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:13 AM UTC

sandGorgon wrote: post #29

Sorry to barge in on this thread - but I have a question that turns this on its head. Let's say you are a brilliant CTO/cofounder, but you are already doing something. Now you had this idea (or someone else had this idea) ... and you want to set them up for seed/series-A round and then you want to leave . assumption - you trust the CEO to not screw you. How do you structure your equity compensation so that you have s…

Ask for the same terms as the founders, and ask for a big enough stake that you have something left after a prospective Series B round assuming 20-25% watering down in each round. That makes it so that the founders have to do to themselves what they do to you so your interests are aligned.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#85

Post by headhuntermdk » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:17 AM UTC

beachstartup wrote: post #51

there's plenty of other good tactical advice here, but i would like to say something more general: this is the point in your life where you decide to be a lion, or a lamb. the hyenas are circling and they're not going away.

That reminds me of when I was in bootcamp. Our DIs would constantly ask us "Are you a mouse or a man?"

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#86

Post by practicalpants » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:25 AM UTC

I'm imagining two scenarios. Either...

A) You are in fact inexperienced and are damaging the product with your code. If you have less than a year or two of programming (that includes one of those code "bootcamps" too...), then he's probably right. I would probably view you as dead weight, and would not want you on the team.

Or

B) You actually aren't that bad and could contribute to the product positively... especially if it's something like a RoR or Django app which is not the hardest thing to pickup w/o an extensive programming/CS background. In this case, your CTO is possibly an elitist prick. I've worked for a CTO who had pointlessly high standards, especially it being a pre-funded startup where, for example, he shouldn't be freaking out about a few lines of redundancy. He churned through a lot of programmers, was all very inefficient, and I certainly felt like he was power tripping at times. Even if this CTO guy is really good, if he has an abrasive personality and does stuff like I described above, for the sake of the team he should be the one to go. If your product is going places he shouldn't be too hard to replace.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#87

Post by tedivm » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:28 AM UTC

cantlookaway wrote: post #3

9oliYQjP wrote: post #2

First off, I'm sorry about your situation. Nobody here will be able to judge with any degree of accuracy whether he has a point. I personally would not look at this situation as a technical one; this is a business relationship situation. Regardless of whether there is any grain of truth, the CTO has lost confidence in you. Not just a little bit. He has asked you to leave. The rest of my advice assumes the CEO (your c…

Thank you for taking the time to respond. > The rest of my advice assumes the CEO (your co-founder) has quite a bit of confidence in the CTO. This is the case, it is in my interest however to remain in the company because my equity is vested, the sooner I leave the less I will get in return, apart from my time, and opportunity cost I invested all my personal wealth.

You can simply tell him that you'll leave if you get the rest of your vested stock, of if you get a new position as an "advisor" that allows you to stay on at a low salary until your stocks have finished vesting. If he really wants you out he'll find a way to make it happen, and if that way is writing a check instead of dealing with a bunch of drama he'll probably take it.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#88

Post by gscott » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:29 AM UTC

It is important to deal with this, I would suggest getting a number of people to support you then setting him down because this will only get worse. If you leave you will not get any benefit from the company and your investment will shrink as more investors come on. The only way to keep your investment is to stay in the company (or try to get bought out of the company). You should get him replaced. No matter how good he is, he is trying to ruin your life and that is enough to get rid of him asap.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#89

Post by TempleOSV2 » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:30 AM UTC

I was chosen by God to make His temple. He has puppeted me. The result is divine intellect.

My continuous release schedule is unprofessional. I behave as though no users. God wants it perfect, so it is good to ignore users because they might tempt me to not change something imperfect.

God says... C:\TAD\Text\BIBLE.TXT

ple that is poor by thee, thou shalt not be to him as an usurer, neither shalt thou lay upon him usury.

22:26 If thou at all take thy neighbour's raiment to pledge, thou shalt deliver it unto him by that the sun goeth down: 22:27 For that is his covering only, it is his raiment for his skin: wherein shall he sleep? and it shall come to pass, when he crieth unto me, that I will hear; for I am gracious.

22:28 Thou shalt not revile the gods, nor curse the ruler of thy people.

22:29 Thou shalt not delay to

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#90

Post by pyrrhotech » Sun, Apr 13, 2014, 4:32 AM UTC

dude, you are the founder, he is an employee. You presumably have a lot more control over what happens at the company than he does. If you aren't a great coder, keep learning.