tech-company, legal, launch, director-duties, ctoI’m a CTO and I’ve developed most of the technology stack for my company. Initially I was hired as a freelancer, but then got promoted.
Since I’m responsible for the technology, can the company sue me in case of techincal issues after product launch? Eg. performance issues under huge user load.
I’m still the CTO (co-founder) and have several percent of the shares.
The simple answer for this is that anyone can be sued for anything, that’s the great upside and downside of the american court system (assuming you living in america).
But let’s put this in perspective. Who at your company is more equipped to make these decisions than you are? Therefor, who’s going to have the chops to build a case against you?
They would have to hire an outside consultant at big dollars + higher lawyer (also big dollars) and they would have to take you to court, in hope of proving that you were actually not only negligent, but to the degree to which it was criminal.
They would have to prove that you had adequate information to make better decisions and you chose not to make those decisions. It’s very easy for you to point out that you were making decisions based on the information before you, etc.
As long as you haven’t lied about your proficiency and expertise you should be fine.
All of that being said, if you’re worried you’re working with litigious jerks, you probably shouldn’t be working there.
If you’re worried about performance, make sure you build load testing into your software development practice. If they aren’t willing to give you the resources you need to make a quality product, they certainly can’t sue you for failing to succeed.
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