Ask HN: Dynamics between CEO and CTO as a startup matures?

Based on what you wrote, it doesn't sound like you have confidence in your potential cofounder or the value they might bring to the table. I think this partnership is not likely to work out - not because of the CEO's deficiencies (however real they might be), but because you're starting out a very critical relationship with an adversarial attitude.

Secondly, while a CTO should indeed be very technically involved at the early stages, it is a business role at the end of the day. Your goal is to build a healthy business, not code up the cleanest architecture or deliver the most beautiful product (though you'll probably need to do these as well). As a cofounder, you will be dealing with customers, with risk mitigation, with all sorts of things that are only tangentially related to technology. This attitude of "value comes from software" is something I see often from engineers, who miss the fact that code is a means to an end. There is a lot more to a successful business than writing code. To answer your question, I do think that you're likely to encounter friction with other senior/executive leadership as long as that is your worldview.

Might be worth reading The Founder's Dilemmas by Noam Wasserman. He covers the topic of cofounding with others, and also talks about optimizing for control vs money (spoiler, if you go for the former, you will likely have a lot less of the latter).

My confidence is more in my ability to deliver the product, from all aspects, sales/product/tech. I think my cofounder wouldn't contest that this is somewhat true. I'm more so asking about the end outcome, how it will feel if the startup succeeds and he is in the drivers seat, and the raw execution need is no longer there.

"I'm not discrediting a non technical person, but the value comes from the software"

Well, to be honest, you ARE discrediting the co founder based on everything you wrote. You clearly don't have faith and trust in this person that you are co founding with.

I suggest you think very hard before jumping into this with this person because you will end up resenting them a lot as you already are.

Perhaps you need to think about what this person can truly bring to the table and when its just 2 of you, there is no real CEO work. It is mostly sell, build, sell, sell, market, build, sell (something like that)

So, ask yourself: can this person help sell and get customers while you "pound the pavement" in your own words.

"but the value comes from the software"

This is the red flag for me. It seems like you think software does all the magic. It doesn't. Trust me. Software is the means to an end. yes the product needs to be good but in the early days, you need to be able to figure out how to validate the market and find customers who may use something that you are building.

Source: A technical founder in 8th year of business and technical stuff is 40%.

All the best. I said everything to help (hopefully).

Sounds like you don’t wanna do it and are just looking for confirmation of that. If that assessment is incorrect and you do wanna do it, then what are you waiting for? Get going and do the great job you suggest you’d be doing. Being neurotic on HN isn’t gonna build a business ;)

Haha appreciate the kind words, and you read correctly, looking for any reason to maybe back out of something I actually really want to do

What you need to do is codify this imbalance in ownership. If you're bringing more to the table you get more.

It begs the question: what's the other person for? As that other person does more they might get more...or they might not.

One thing I've learned in tech is that sales is much more important than product. There are people who can sell stuff that isn't built. There are even more people that can build stuff that doesn't sell. Don't be that guy.

You could consider on-boarding the CEO based on performance.

i.e. If they generate a certain monthly recurring revenue, they get 50% of the company. Less than that they get nothing.

> We already know exactly what we will build.

If the non-technical person is so pointless (not to discredit them), then go ahead and build it without them. Create the value yourself.

Does this potential CEO have some unique industry contacts or domain knowledge? What are they bringing to the table?

> CTO role diminishes significantly relative to the CEO.

Really? How? If the business keeps growing, the tech will too.