One or more people in the company want to replace you. These people are framing the decision as "you need to step aside for the good of the company" in order to

One or more people in the company want to replace you. These people are framing the decision as "you need to step aside for the good of the company" in order to play to your sense of teamwork and loyalty, while trying to present the decision as a fait accompli. The fact that their preference involves nepotism and a closed hiring process makes it unlikely this is really about getting the best person for your job, especially if they are non-technical people hiring for a technical role. This may be a response to real or perceived issues with your management and while you should try to solve these, the practical problem is that once your team accedes to any suggested change everyone will be complicit in wanting the new hire to succeed. This makes it unlikely that he or the new corporate structure will be identified as a problem even if it makes things worse. And even if it becomes obvious your replacement needs to be fired he'll have a honeymoon period of at least 6-8 months before organizational change will be possible since it will take time for a consensus to build against his father that this guy has had a fair shake. So in a worst case situation you should expect to be Cassandra: people aren't going to want to hear any complaints you might make about the direction of the company or competence of technical execution because they'll interpret your warnings as negativity or envy or malice. I think you should stand up for yourself and your investment in the company. One of the reasons to start a company is to have the flexibility to work on the things you want to. But at a minimum, you should absolutely be checking references and conducting your own evaluation of this guy so that you have an informed opinion on whether he is going to work out. Because while it's possible he is exactly what your company needs, it's more likely that YOU are exactly what your company needs. And if your cofounders are not technical, I'd put money on the latter.