I work for an entertainment software startup, and I’ve watched for five years as my CEO has focused the company on creating demos to get investment, and short term deals with large companies using what we have. This has resulted in burnout, attrition, and massive tech debt.

There is a time and place for this, but five years in, we haven’t invested our resources in making an MVP we can build a customer base on. The board is finally asking that we have a revenue plan, but in a recent conversation, the CEO told me he has no plans to make money over the next year or attempt to scale users. His vision is high level, without details on strategy. At this point, the CTO and head a product are pretty much in my corner, sharing my concerns.

I don’t want to just assume he’s an idiot. He’s a gifted talker, but there’s a kind of reality distortion at play that I just don’t get. It’s like he’s ignorant to how software development works, yet is the CEO of a software company. Maybe he just hopes we’ll be purchased.

Point is, how can I help right this ship as a non-founder, but senior level early employee? What should I be empathetic to? What’s a sign that he really doesn’t know what he’s doing?

  • digdeepbirdman@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    My first thought was what everyone is saying here sounds like time to make a different bet.

    But, since you asked for advice on being the difference you want to see at the company:

    You should put some time on his calendar and have a crucial conversation. He’ll respect your questions and insight. If not, that’s a further sign that maybe it’s time to move on. Just say what you said in this post, maybe a little softer. See if you like what he says.

    You could write up a product spec for the MVP that you think people want and recommend that you heads down crank that out. He probably has that on his mind since the board is demanding a revenue plan.

    I wouldn’t worry about empathy right now, just get in there and talk. You’ll find what you need to be empathetic about. But, at the same time, he’s a CEO and should be held to a high performance bar.