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Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

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Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#211

Post by moron4hire »

cantlookaway wrote: post #173
gaoshan wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>You have phrased this as an almost apologetic post And I bet this is why the CTO has taken the path that they have. They sense the same thing that we sense from the tone of this comment so they are going after that perceived weakness.

I am a very easy going guy who dislikes confrontation, I also assume the people I am working with are my peers, and treat them as such.

Being a doormat is not a virtue. You are never wrong for standing up for yourself. It is the other person who was wrong from the start to try to walk all over you. Deference is not the same thing as respect. Everyone deserves respect, always, but they almost never deserve deference.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#212

Post by cantlookaway »

Bluestrike2 wrote: post #110

You need to hire an attorney, one who works in business litigation (if you can find someone specializing in minority shareholder disputes, that much the better). Right now. If you're delaying on this point out of some idea of wanting to "try to fix things first" or "not wanting to be the bad guy," you're just shooting yourself in the foot and downing blood thinners to keep the wound from clotting. Working with an att…

I will get a lawyer, not the company one. Thank you for all of your advice.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#213

Post by dodyg »

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.

Is he/she an employee or a third partner?

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#214

Post by ktran03 »

madaxe_again wrote: post #152
tinco wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There are two possibilities right off the bat: (i) the CEO is involved, which is likely given the difficulty involved in squeezing-out a shareholder + 50% co-founder; (ii) the CTO is working alone, hoping to push you out the door and benefit in some way from the resulting vacuum. Well aren't you mister negative here. If this guy was just an employee the tone of this thread would be very different. Every CTO knows t…

It always pays to take the worst case scenarios seriously. If you refuse to even consider them, when and if they turn out to be true, you find yourself utterly unprepared. As to dead wood, as a cofounder and director this is his call too. Leaving the business may well be best for the business, and therefore best for him - so long as equity etc. is retained, although that's a dangerous position if you do not have or h…

Words of wisdom.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#216

Post by hga »

angrybits wrote: post #209
Hermel wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are suggesting that the lawyer can help in two ways: 1. Negotiations 2. Understanding the legal situation Regarding the second point, the correct advice is not to sign contracts whose consequences you do not understand. Regarding the first point, engaging a lawyer will destroy whatever trust and mutual understanding is left in the relationship between the founders. This might be the US way of doing things. But be…

Offending the people trying to screw you out of your earned rights and compensation should not be at the top of your list of things to avoid.

One of the few paths to success is patching things up with the CEO if that's feasible and desirable.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#217

Post by BigBalli »

He does have a point. It's not common because usually higher-ups always remind people who's in charge. It's up to you, but if you decide to stay you need to be more affirmative and build self-esteem.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#218

Post by dvirsky »

I was once offered the job like this CTO, taking over from a less experienced co-founder, with his consent, while he remains in place. I didn't take the job for other reasons, but I would never have done what this guy is doing to you. And if I had, the CEO would probably fire me.

If you were really that bad, your co-founder CEO should have parted ways with you already. But of course you're not - just the fact that you are aware of your limitations and learning as you go, is evidence of that. I've seen bad technical co-founders, and they are NOT aware of their limitations usually, or don't care about it. And BTW for the quick-n-dirty prototype part of a start-up's life cycle, having crap code is perfectly fine IMHO - as long as you're aware of it and it's a conscious decision.

But if that really is the case (and I doubt it) - and it's for the greater good of the company that you will be fired - you should be very well compensated for your time and effort, as other have mentioned. I've actually seen another situation at a start-up where this was in fact the case, and the company was better off firing a co-founder. It was painful but he was compensated and got to keep most of his shares, so it was probably for his interest as well (though I'm not sure he realized it at the time).

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#219

Post by snorkel »

avenger123 wrote: post #19

It looks like you have real equity in the company and there is possible traction in the business. You are a co-founder. That counts for a lot. I am also assuming that your equity stake is significant. First of all, deal with this right now. Don't wait for the 3-6 months. You are basically being told that once they have raised money, they will find a way to get you out. Right now, it's a fishing expedition between the…

That's a good point: They don't want to you to leave now, so leverage that. But this situation is not fixable by staying at the company. Recognize the CTO and CEO want you leave when it's convenient for them, and that's it's probably a personal issue, they probably don't like,working with you or else they would've suggested some other role for you. So find a way to leave now with your equity intact, with the help of a lawyer.

Re: Ask HN: CTO wants me to leave

#220

Post by hga »

pedrosorio wrote: post #187
hoodoof wrote: post #20

Listen ‎Eduardo Saverin: FIRST THING GET YOUR OWN LAWYER AND TALK TO THEM NOW! The key question here is : do you have equity, and how much equity do you have in percentage terms? If you are an equal cofounder, then when someone turns up and says "you have to leave cause better people have been employed", you say "fuck off". Think about it - EVERY company that grows will employ people who are better than the cofounder…

"Do you think that Zuckerberg is the best developer at Facebook - legend may say so but it's not true" What is this legend? I think everybody is aware of the fact that the infrastructure that allowed facebook to scale was not (and probably could not have been) built by Zuckerberg. He had guys like Adam D'Angelo working for him from the beginning.

He's more like the Bill Gates of the company. Has serious technical chops, and knew that technical thing like scaling were not optional. Compare to the object lesson of competitor Friendster, where the people running it after they ousted the computer programmer founder ignored that minor detail....
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