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Having been on both sides of the situation a couple times, the distinction is pretty simple for me: do you have a seat on the board? If you have a board seat,
by fizx 9y ago
Having been on both sides of the situation a couple times, the distinction is pretty simple for me: do you have a seat on the board?
If you have a board seat, great, you're a real founder/CTO!
If you're not interested in the board seat or you're aware that you don't bring enough to the table to earn it, you're a good candidate for a founding engineer. You should be happy!
If the other founder(s) want you to be a founder/CTO without the board seat, run! They're just using the prestige of the title to pay you less, and will revoke it at the first convenience.
- mooreds 9y agoThat's a great perspective and a great question to ask yourself: "do I want to have a board seat, with everything that comes with that". If you don't know what a board seat entails, well then you know what research you have to do.
- CalChris 9y agoMost people don't understand boards and boards vary by company and over time. Brad Feld, author of the excellent Venture Deals, has another book Startup Boards: Getting the Most Out of Your Board of Directors. https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Boards-Getting-Board-Directors/dp/1118443667/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8 https://www.amazon.com/Startup-Boards-Getting-Board-Director...
- mooreds 9y agoThanks for the recommendation.
- GuiA 9y ago> If the other founder(s) want you to be a founder/CTO without the board seat, run! They're just using the prestige of the title to pay you less, and will revoke it at the first convenience. Been there, done that, can confirm. That was a shitty 2 years, but I’m glad I learned all these lessons in my early 20s rather than later in life (with potentially a mortgage, kids, etc)