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CEO overruling CTO constantly

 
 
SomeCTO
 
Reply Fri 8 Sep, 2017 11:07 pm
Dear gentlemen,
I would like to know what you think or recommend to do in my situation. I'm CTO of a small business ~15 employees. Our company has been founded 2011 between 4 friends/partners without external funding. I brought in a lot of software which I developed in my spare time. For that reason I hold 1/3rd of this company. Same as the CEO. CFO and CIO share the remaining 1/3rd.

As CTO the development department is in my hands, however our CEO kept addressing developers directly over and over again. I tell them to work on one thing, the CEO comes and says "No - work on this other thing as it's more urgent". This caused the situation that developers are confused and asked me already when I gave them work whether I double checked with the CEO. There is no trust - all micromanagement comes from the CEO. I mean if he would be a super hero that simply can do it all I wouldn't mind, but he neglects other important things which a CEO should work on. For example I got us a really great sales guy in Germany and all he asked for was a business plan. The CEO promised to provide it. Now 2 years later we still don't have a business plan yet.

The whole situation escalated when I was on a 2 weeks vacation. I asked the CEO to take over my daily business during my vacation. When I came back, the company wasn't the same any more. We had 2 scrum teams before I left on vacation. Now we had self organizing "focus groups" and 3 people to still use scrum. Somehow... Also he started a new project about some specialized UI development with someone who has left the university just last year. I mean I worked since the year 2000 on this kind of specialized UI. I'm the only one in our company who has more than 1 year experience with this - I have 17 years experience. However the CEO kicked that project off with a rookie.

I was at least invited on the discussion, but it was even named "New React based UI" and I was like "hello? I would like to be part of the decision which technology is being used for the new UI at least".

All together drove me into a burnout situation. I couldn't take or handle it any more. I have helped to build up this company with my bare hands and I see how our CEO is just ruining it all by his incompetent behavior.
Once I recovered from this burnout situation we had a partner call. I tried to explain the other 2 partners what happened, but this CEO is a very professional talker. Whenever I went into the direction of these things he turned the sentence around into "how does this justify that you left for one month?". Whenever the one month is also not true. It was 2 weeks. I contacted him and he didn't want me to come back. He said that he doesn't know whether he can continue working with me. So the remaining 2 weeks were caused by him even though he doesn't admit that in front of our partners.

We then had a partner call about this. I wanted as a result of this partner call that he stays out of the development. However he talked the other partners into believing that the CEO does everything right and I would have decided to not work any more.
Whenever there was a conflict with our CEO the result was always the same: He did everything right and you did everything wrong. He creates a document that you have to agree on. Something with many, many rules that should prevent you from running into the same issue again. Stupid stuff like "not sending emails at night". I mean - all 3 partners are based in the US, I am based in Germany. Of course emails are sent at night sometimes". This time he forces me to sign a paper to continue. A paper that says stuff like "if my partners vote me out, I will retreat from my job as CTO and will also not get payments any more". He disallows me to work with the development team until I sign this paper. I mean we have an operating agreement, signed in 2011 which pretty clearly handles all these things. This is just about him showing that he's the boss. Nothing else.

I am desperate at this point. This company made money only with the software that I brought in originally. Many million dollars. I guess that I cannot even take the IP for it with me any more and all I get instead of a thank you is a butt kick. The development situation is horrible. All of our developers are in Czech Republic. Our CEO is originally from Czech Republic. He lives next to New York - usually. He is married to a mexican wife. She was saying that if Trump wins the election, she will leave the US. And she made it true. Since then they both spend most of their time Czech Republic where this CEO interacts daily with developers directly. I cannot keep up to that as a CTO operating from Germany. This pretty much ruined the company structure completely.

At this point I got some time as I said that I want a lawyer to check this statement which he forces me to sign before I sign. However he ruined my feelings for this company completely. I will definitely not sign. It's a question whether he will also make my partners then voting against me. He is a manipulator. What do you think I should do or can do?

Oh one more info: He is also CEO of another business. A consulting company in the SAP area. I know they didn't break off in good terms. I just asked what happened and what made them split. Do you know what the answer was? The CEO took actions which he was not allowed to take on his own. Bingo. So it seems that it's not just me like this CEO describes. Unfortunately this is info which I cannot tell my other partners as his previous company is a competitor. I still have good relationship with both of his ex colleagues as this SAP area that we're specialized in is very small. So you know all people who work on that. One of them even worked thru my master's thesis back in 2000 correcting my horrible english as well as some technical things that he brought in. Anyway in the partner meeting the CEO even went down to a level where I should get help from a psychologist. He did the same things before. Unfortunately with at least one of my partners he found someone who belives everything that he says and acts accordingly. And that's extremely dangerous because that's 2 of 4 votes and the 3rd partner is more like a "leave me alone" kind of guy. He wants to be independent. If he gets convinced as well, I'm history for this company.

I'm happy for any suggestion on what to do. Thank you so much already for reading this long story...
 
jespah
 
  3  
Reply Sat 9 Sep, 2017 05:11 am
@SomeCTO,
First off, please don't assume the only people who would read and answer your question would be male. Seriously. It's 2017.

Now for your issues. You're right; that paper is crap. Don't sign it without your lawyer looking over it closely, but he or she will likely tell you the same thing. And don't be so sure that you don't have the IP anymore. Again, talk to your lawyer about that. A work for hire in the United States means the worker does not hold the IP (usually; copyright law in the US is kind of a mess lately), but you were not in a work for hire situation because you own 1/3 of the company.

His nonsense about you being away is also that - nonsense. You are allowed to take time off just like everyone else.

Lastly, I would have him and the other two buy you out if I were you. Unless you can get your other partners to side with you and not him, then he will continue to hold all the cards. This will not get any better.

Get an independent entity to value your business and your share of it and sell your piece. If you need to sell it to get the IP, then do so, but the IP is probably not worth the same as the business.

Of course listen to your lawyer over me if they disagree with me in any manner. But go to your lawyer first.
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