I think you need to be realistic: this situation has gone toxic and it's not likely that you're going to be involved in a few months time. Once you have interna

I think you need to be realistic: this situation has gone toxic and it's not likely that you're going to be involved in a few months time. Once you have internalized this and you're still breathing, it will become easier to see the positives. As others have said, it's highly likely that the CTO and CEO are working together on this. The best thing you can do is - with the assistance of your lawyer - extract yourself as quickly and cleanly as you can manage. Try not to burn bridges; legitimately hope that they succeed. After all, you will retain a substantial percentage of the company. I can't know the details but from the way you describe the situation, I'm somewhat empathetic to the position that the CTO finds himself in. Your only claim to power is that you were there at the beginning. While that's not a small detail, it's often true that the people who are vitally important to a company in the beginning end up being minor players in the future. See: Craig Newmark or the early support reps at eBay. In short: you're a founder who is probably no longer playing an irreplaceable role in your company. The CTO wants a meritocracy, and when you're a small team shooting for growth, a founder with just enough tech chops to be a distraction is a major source of risk. To this end, I am surprised that they didn't give you notice already. I don't say any of this to be mean, it's just that these relationships are hard and most people let awkwardness keep them from telling the hard truth.