Hey everyone,
I’ve recently been approached with a CTO position for a startup
I’m currently a student at School 42 in Paris, (renown in France for its really hard software engineering curriculum and also probably the only reason this startup even contacted me) , so I can only commit to a part-time role and not a full time role.
The team is currently three people: a CEO, a co-founder, and a sales manager
Today, the co-founder told me that as the CTO, I’d be in charge of creating the first MVP and automating processes as much as possible. They want the V1 rolling by January.
I’m wondering, like… what am I supposed to do as a CTO in a startup of 3 people ?
What exactly would the role of a CTO entail in this context?
I’m trying to gauge the workload that would come with a part-time CTO position, especially since I need to balance it with my studies since my school is literally for psychopaths
If you believe in the product, you could try it.
However, as others have pointed out, likely they need some free labour.
What I’d do to make sure they’re not screwing you is ask for vesting shares. Sign on for 2.5% of the company, then at every 12 month interval get another 2.5% to 10% (example numbers, but I wouldn’t take less than 10% for free labour).
Make sure to get a lawyer to look at the contract, no dilution options for forced sale options for the others.