IMHO it doesn't matter whether you are CEO, CTO, CFO, C-whatever-you-feel-like-O, as long as you are a founder.
A startup is a kind of ponzi scheme benefitting the founders (and VCs).
Successful founders will happily tell everyone and their dog how being a founder was so much work, how they didn't go on holiday for a few years, how they worked long hours, etc. And mostly why they deserve to be rich now while none of their employees is. None of them will talk about how being one of the first employees was also so much work, usually with a pretty bad salary and order of magnitudes fewer options than the founder.
I always wonder how the founders can genuinely believe that they are actually worth thousands of me. I am pretty damn sure that with a thousand me, we produce more than the founders alone.
Maybe, but there are levels to the game. The CEO has legal rights to fire cofounders, often with the board on their side. Early stage this doesnt get exercised often. But when the CTO has ten million of equity to vest over two more years, questions get asked behind closed doors about whether they are worth that amount. Thats when the "professional CTO" is brought in. Its extremely common, and letting him vest that amount is coming out of the pocket of the CEO and the investors
I don't think that anything in the law says that if your title is "CEO", then you can fire cofounders. I'm guessing it depends on the contract the cofounders sign in the beginning.
> often with the board on their side
I have seen the CTO convince the board to fire his cofounder who was more the CEO? Well I don't know if the titles were written in the contracts, they changed over the years. But the guy who got his cofounder fired went from calling himself CTO to calling himself co-CEO to getting his "buddy" fired.
> I am pretty damn sure that with a thousand me, we produce more than the founders alone
Engineers generally never acknowledge the value of knowing _what_ to build, only whether something is built.
As an engineer, I don't pretend to know or understand what the market wants or what people are willing to pay for. That's a problem I leave to business/product-oriented people. In exchange, they leave the building to me.
> Engineers generally never acknowledge the value of knowing _what_ to build, only whether something is built.
Nobody knows what to build, that's why VCs give money to many startups, almost all of them bankrupting.
The sole value of the founders is to be able to convince VCs for as long as they can. VCs generally have no clue about the technology, so it's about getting good at selling bullshit. Granted, I am not great at selling bullshit, so it doesn't make me a great founder.
Now if we get back to knowing what to build, if you give me a thousand me, we can try a whole bunch of different ideas hoping that one works. This is what VCs do, and it works for them even though they have no clue either.
No, a founder is never worth thousands of employees, period.
And I'd like to note the asymmetry here: I am arguing that I am not thousands of times less valuable than them. I am not remotely saying that I am better.
A startup is a kind of ponzi scheme benefitting the founders (and VCs).
Successful founders will happily tell everyone and their dog how being a founder was so much work, how they didn't go on holiday for a few years, how they worked long hours, etc. And mostly why they deserve to be rich now while none of their employees is. None of them will talk about how being one of the first employees was also so much work, usually with a pretty bad salary and order of magnitudes fewer options than the founder.
I always wonder how the founders can genuinely believe that they are actually worth thousands of me. I am pretty damn sure that with a thousand me, we produce more than the founders alone.