managementLast year I was hired as a contractor in order to help a startup to finish their product (they were having a hard time hiring Python developers). The solo founder is filthy rich, well connected and I’m making a modest profit.
One month from launch and the lead developer left (for their main competitor) and I’m holding the bag. Management is amateurish beyond description:
We are now 15 days from launch and it is impossible to dodge that iceberg.
They demand I keep playing the violin but I don’t want to sink with the ship.
Have you ever faced similar situation or know someone who went through it? Can you share how it went and what would you do differently if you could go back in time?
[update]
The CTO left, not the CEO - perhaps “holding the helm” is the wrong metaphor. A key person left the team and I was assigned to his role, a position way more stressful than I signed up for.
In that case, if you are taking a key position like substituting the CTO, some considerations are in order.
First you have to decide what kind of take-back and follow up you want to have in your resume about this experience.
–This part is probably useful only to the Brazilian view of the question–
I assume that you are in Brazil, like your profile says. The culture in our country is ill to entrepreneurship in the sense that not having tried is better than having tried and failed. But that is progressively changeing in the Startup ecosystem. Each day the US and foreign culture of receiving a failed attempt in as high regard as a successful attempt of establishing a new business is the rule in the Brazilian startup scene. But that is still far from the truth for the rest of society. A failure can be something frowned upon in many local circles, including in the industry that interests you.
The second consideration is local accountability of the company’s executives. Brazilian legislation and judicial system are very hard on administrators of companies in the sense that in case the company declares bankruptcy, every one that holds (or acts like he holds, or even seems to hold) an administrative position (director in the board, or executive, or even shareholders when they have some powers like to approve high value expenses or contracts) will be drawn into very expensive and very slow litigations in the judicial system, and most likely be forbidden to hold administrative power in other companies while the lawsuit continues and even for a number of year after it concludes. Of course you can always prove your innocence if you had nothing to do with the facts that generated the bankruptcy, but it will cost you a lot of money, a lot of time, and a lot of explaining. By a lot of time I mean from 10 to 20 YEARS.
And don’t you ever forget about labour-related lawsuits. They are the most damaging part of holding an administrative position in Brazil. Any labour-related lawsuit that a company might receive from employees, or even contractors that strategically request to be considered employees after the job is done, might be a direct hit on an executive or someone who looks like an executive. If you have not been there over-watching what goes on in labour-related actions (like contractors, extra hours of employees etc. etc. etc.) be very careful on accepting a position without some kind of guarantee against wrong legal demands. A judge will not hesitate to block your personal bank account and use it to pay for an employee lawsuit. That happens very fast, and if you were not really responsible for the damage, getting your money back will take you MANY YEARS, if at all possible, because you will be demanding the owner and the other executives for it, never the employee.
–End of Brazil-specific part of the answer–
That said, having chosen to get the be the helmsman and following the captain to whatever end, you need to receive correct and fair compensation for that key position.
Compensation on a Startup means more than just the money, but also a fair stock options package, and even a Founder status with a representative fraction of the property of the company.
If you can’t get to terms on a negotiation, and that’s probably also what you want by your statement, just demand a fair or even above-the-market payment for your services. What would be equivalent to the payment of this key-position not in a Startup (given that Startup incentives like stock options do much of the compensation for key-positions). Especially if that involves continuing the development work after launch.
As for negotiation, you can start getting your point noticed now, and agree to finish development work for the launch, but leave it clear that once launched, you need things to change. That will give the owner and the CEO enough time to sleep over your demands, or find a replacement. Either case seems to be an improvement over your current situation.
You are on the titanic and the old captain has steered the ship towards the iceberg and jumped. You may or may not have time to steer in a different direction. You may or may not have the authority to give out orders to cause a change in direction.
Contractors normally do not have the authority to take the helm. Who pays the bills and the employees? Are there other working directors around?
If the product is ready then going for launch maybe a solution and you can tweak after launch. Or if you have the authority you can push back the launch if you think there are fundamental problems that prevent it from being usable. On the upside, the founder is not there anymore to ignore developer feedback. Pushing back the launch, taking time to fill key positions, fixing obvious bugs and coming out with a decent product maybe a good strategy. If you think pivoting is possible and you can identify a feasible niche and strategy for it that maybe good for the you and the business.
Do you feel you are capable enough to avoid a disaster if you had the resources? If you have access to the board of directors or senior officers in the company, have a meeting and update them and explain any resources you may need and your expectation for the product. Also inquire if they are recruiting for a new CEO or if the position is yours. If you think pivoting to a niche or a different product is possible, try explaining it.
You do not want to get blamed by the board / investors for something which you were not hired to do, so make sure that everybody knows why you are at the helm including the team.
Also on the upside, you get to put acting CEO on your resume. (that it was on the titanic may not matter since 9 out of 10 start ups have titanic tendencies according to some statistics)
Being at the helm, aka being the CEO, is not the same thing as potentially taking on the responsibilities of the lead developer who left. Further, it’s very hard to believe that 15 days from launch that any single person leaving would be critical to finishing the project unless the project started yesterday.
To me, your post reads as if you’re just not happy with the gig, getting paid, and for some reason, 15 days away from being done, you want to jump overboard, which is what it is; meaning it sounds much more unprofessional then anything you’ve described as far as I’m concerned.
My advice is to be more careful about the teams you join in the future, finish the work your under contract to do within reason, and attempt to see the change as an opportunity, not a problem.
Good luck!
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