Paying, yes. Quitting is a solution, but not the most optimal one considering the effort already put in. I'll just end up writing off a few years of my career and put at risk whatever chances the product has of succeeding if I quit.
He is good at talking in general with business folks, talking about the vision, C-level execs and the like. Just not with normal people who work under him. So yeah, there is a mental block in approaching him due to the temper issues and also lack of clarity in what he might end up saying. People perceive talking to him as just adding more work to their plate rather then solving their problem.
Well I definitely don't refer friends here. But I also do recruit people. I do take care of the people I recruit by shielding most communication between the new hires and the CEO. I also believe that I need to plan an exit strategy by recruiting people that could replace me because the others cannot.
I haven't had a direct conversation about this yet. But other colleagues have. He is aware of the problem and has tried having some conversations but that haven't gone down well. The alpha is too dominant.
Well I didn't come up with the idea and I waited until they could raise some seed because I needed a salary. I did build the product from scratch, in fact that's the only thing out in the market currently. I didn't care about titles. And I didn't know about equity. I just joined because I wanted to solve the problem.
At this point I have no other expectations than hoping the product scales as has been envisioned and solves the problem at a meaningful scale to justify the 4 years I have put in. I'll figure out the money part somehow or just go broke and get another job.
I don't know how to measure work that is mostly email and meetings. Some deals have been struck that sound awesome in theory but executing them is a challenge for me in the present scenario. I don't (yet) care about money. I spend a lot on office expenses too and there is again no process for that either and I rarely get paid for those. I'm generally realistic with expectations and deliver on time but I believe there is plenty of accrued technical debt by now that I'm not sure I can manage well going in the future.
There is a CTO, co-founder and I don't think he is that much better off then I am except for the fact the the risk/reward equation is a lot better for him.
The CEO is less technical and more business. I run software engineering. First employee. Company is 4 years old, I have been working here for 4 years. Known CEO for about the same time. I don't think we are friends since I basically avoid talking unless needed for work.
Companies finances are okay. The product market fit is not all there yet. But there is a path to revenue. The Series A raised a few months ago is good enough to cover all costs and more for more than a year. There is no CFO, the CEO manages the finances.
I have build a lot of the processes and I'm well aware of how start-ups work. We (2 founders + me) started working out of a coffee shop and now have about 20-25 full time people.