

CTO, VP of Engineering and CEO (again) - uncoder

About a year ago, there was a long discussion about CTO vs. VP of Eng. where a CTO who was acting as VP of Eng. was getting paranoid about the CEO wanting to hire a new VP of Eng. with the VP of Eng. directly reporting to the CEO. Here is the link: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=509571<p>I found the discussion very interesting. My situation is slightly different - I'm the Founder and CTO of a six-year old company, with no CEO initially. We then brought on a CEO, who then brought on a VP of Eng. &#38; VP of Marketing.
These hires were with my active participation and involvement. For the first two years, I worked with the VP of Eng., and along the way, discovered many gaps in day-to-day execution, the result of which I was also "half" VP of Eng. It was very awkward, because the VP of Eng. was essentially the CEO's pick, and the VP of Eng. had a free ride with me doing the work and him taking the credit. However, it turned out that the key folks reporting to the VP of Eng. saw through this, the CEO could not keep propping up the VP of Eng. and the VP of Eng. was forced out. Of course, I am pretty sure that the CEO, to this day, keeps thinking that I caused the VP of Eng. to be dysfunctional and forced him out,
even though the board and the rest of the company knows fully well that that was not the case, and that it was more important for me, as a founder and a large shareholder, I had a stake in the VP of Eng. success. In any case, we went through another VP of Eng., and after two more years, he was also out, this time he could not work with the CEO. Eventually, the third VP of Eng was brought on, but for him to be successful, myself and the rest of the exec team
have to walk extremely carefully, and back off any questioning of his work, and the engineering team is increasingly isolated from the rest of the organization. Moreover, given the prior history, my relationship with the CEO
is very delicate, with me having to play a much less reduced role. He tends to brush off any suggestion from the CTO as not sound business sense, and any suggestion, even when constructive, becomes a negative comment on the
work of others. Given my position in the company, the stake in its success, I cannot quit. Naturally, working in this environment can be difficult, since there is really no one who is there to offer support for me. Does anyone have any suggestions on how best to proceed?
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hga
1\. Get rid of the CEO; let's look at the record:

First VP of Eng. "was essentially" his pick, couldn't do the job and the VP
wasn't honest about that.

Second VP of Eng. could not work with him.

At this point, _you_ can't work with him either.

Can he work with technical people? Might the current VP of Eng. have a better
chance of working out without the CEO?

If that can't be made to work, maybe without this CEO in the loop the next VP
of Eng. will work out....

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kls
Granted we only get one side of the story in these type post, but it does
sound like you have an issue with the CEO. I urge you to truly self-reflect
and see if there where some issues on your part (tell yourself the truth). If
the story is still exactly how you wrote it here, then the CEO is inadequate
and it is time to approach the board and offer them you head or his.

~~~
uncoder
Good point, kls. It is definitely my side of the post.If you ask the CEO, his
side would be: I joined the company when there was nothing. I brought
immediate value bringing with me, the VP. of Eng., and VP. of Marketing. You
were the problem - you didn't let him do his job, and in the name of filling
gaps, and acting as if you know all the answers, you made him fail. Then, the
second VP. of Eng., yes, we rushed into it bringing him, and he really was
inadequate. You were the one who approved the second VP. of Eng., and it was
only for the purpose of you finding someone who you could work with, I bought
into it, knowing fully well that he may not work out. As you know, you and I
agreed that he needed to develop in certain areas, and I gave the feedback to
him (as a proxy for you), except he thought it was unfair, never going to work
out and quit.

Of course, the above conversation hasn't happened, but that's how I would
reconstruct his version of the events. Which brings us to your request for me
to "self-reflect and see if there were some issues on my part". Hard to self-
reflect, but I do agree that as a big stakeholder who cares deeply about the
success of the business, I may have tended to assert my view. Which is why the
current third VP of Eng. is left to run things without interference from the
rest of the exec team. I hope he succeeds, the business succeeds, and the CEO
succeeds.

