Tentative Jubilation!

[swestrup]

I got back from my job interview about an two hours ago, but its taken me this long to wade through my email (all the missing email from the last few days showed up while I was out), and have a long talk with taxlady about how it went. As to that: I have the Good News and the Bad News.

The Good News is that I've been offered a job as CTO at a new avionics startup, and will have a starting salary double that of my last job!!!

The Bad News is that the company doesn't exist yet; it doesn't even have a name. The money to pay me with is all virtual as well. The guy who hired me is scrambling to find people and put a team together, while his investors are doing various bits of paperwork that is supposed to make money appear in 2 to 3 weeks.

Sooo, its looking like its a really good job that just doesn't happen to exist quite yet. For now, I'm CTO of a unnamed company that I desperatly hope really does materialize in the next 3-6 weeks, and starts paying me. When that first paycheque clears, I'll will do a Gonzo Happy Dance, but for now, I can't help but think it all seems too good to possibly be true!

Comments

[kishiriadgr.livejournal.com]

Well, if nothing else it's an egoboost...

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Tenative congratulations!

[denizsarikaya.livejournal.com]

I agree, tentative congrats.

[skjalm.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on getting the job.

My €0.02 (that's Euro cents, not dollar cents :-P ) worth of advice is to say "Okay, I got this job. But since I don't know if it'll come through I will, for now, pretend I didn't get it and continue looking."

A somewhat pessimistic attitude, yes, but various bad job experiences over the last couple of years has made me believe that it's better to prepare for the worst and get pleasantly surprised that to get disappointed and have all sorts of economical and/or emotional worries when things turn out to be less golden than they seem.

Anyways, I hope the company turns out to be great and that you'll have a cool position as CTO... what does that mean, precisely? Remember, I'm just an ignorant geek who don't know all these fancy acronyms ;-)

[taxlady.livejournal.com]

It's an acronym that a geek should know: Chief technical officer (top geek at the company) ;)

[swestrup]

Basic Business Theory:

A corporation (at least in North America) is run as a two tier system, with the top tier of control being the Board of Directors which is responsible to the shareholders and has members elected from the major shareholders. The Board consists of the Chairman (who governs the board), the Outside Directors (people not working for the company, and therefor expected to be unbiased) and the Inside Directors (folks from inside the company who are expected to know what's going on. These are usually the president and vice-presidents of the company. President and vice-president are, by the way, legal terms for the folks responsible for certain aspects of the company and who are named in the incorporation documents).

The idea is that the Directors are responsible for the long term strategic planning of the company and issue Directives to the Executive Officers, which form the second tier. The Executive Officers are hired by the Board to actually run the company and try to implement the directives. The set of Executive Officers changes depending on the business of the company but usually includes the CEO (Chief Executive Officer -- The Big Boss), the COO (Chief Operations Officer -- in charge of marketing, sales, production, and personnel) and the CFO (Chief Financial Officer -- in charge of all money matters).

In practice, things are usually not so clear cut. In the typical case of an entrepreneur who has managed to get some investors together and is forming a corporation (as has happened in my situation), the entrepreneur becomes both the President and CEO and is usually (but not always) Chairman of the board. The Outside Directors are made up of the Investors and their best friends and the Inside Directors are made up from the CEO, COO, CFO and any other Executive Officers.

During the Internet Bubble that started in 1998, many companies formed that were so dependant on surviving in a fast-paced technical environment that for the first time the set of Executive Officers was extended to acknowledge this. As a result two new terms showed up: CIO (Chief Information Officer) and CTO (Chief Technical Officer). Because they are brand-new terms these don't have as clear cut jobs as other Executive Officers, but usually the CIO is the head system administrator for all internal information infrastructure, in charge of day-to-day computer maintenance and upgrades and data security. The CIO often reports to the CTO, who is in charge of all technological decisions in the company, such as how the products are expected to interoperate, which new technologies to use, which to avoid and stuff like that.

Because this company is starting small, the CTO and CIO jobs are going to be merged at first, but as the company grows the CIO job will be split out and someone hired to take care of that.

So, as CTO I'll have the last say in all things technological, and I'll most likely be named to the Board of Directors. Like taxlady says, I'll be Top Geek :-)

[swestrup]

Yup, and a badly needed one, if I say so myself!

Congratulations

[(Anonymous)]

Sat, 14 Aug 2004 21:43:00 EDT (-0400)
Congratulations on the good news. CTO of a company.
Cool.
-Jim

[designergirl.livejournal.com]

Make sure to keep in touch with these guys and regularly find out what's happening with the company so that you can have at least some idea of where you stand.

What do they want you to do? Wait for 3 - 6 weeks and then employ you, hoping that in the meantime you don't wander off elsewhere?

Just make sure that everything is above board and they're not stringing you along.

All that aside ...

[swestrup]

Thanks for the good wishes, and the concern.

The guy that hired me wants me to read up on all the paperwork about the company project, and then help him write up the budget and other documents to present to the investors. The investors want an idea of how much money they will have to come up with, how fast, and when they might expect to start getting returns on their investments, so I'll probably be meeting with the entrepreneur once or twice a week to help plan things until we go full time. In the meantime I'll be scrambling to get my personal projects into a shape where I can afford to put them on hold for a while if need be, while doing some research to bone up on the areas of the business where I don't know enough.

I have no doubts that the person who hired me is legit and is very determined to see this project take off, as its his baby and he wants it to succeed. He is also a long time friend of a long time friend. I probably first met him some 15 years ago, although I think I've only bumped into him once or twice since, so I can't say I know him very well at all. My only worry is that the investors might be stringing *him* along, or might be overly optimistic on how little money we will need or on how fast they can come up with it. There is also a certain amount of evidence that the entrepreneur has even less management experience than me (although he does have experience in other startups, which helps), but he seems well aware of his strengths and limitations and plans to hire folks to help in areas where he is weak. He also seems to be someone who is both frugal and well aware of the need to spend money in order to make money. This means that he is likely to ensure that we all have the equipment needed to do the job right, but that 'status' things like mahogany desks are NOT going to be a priority. (Its amazing how many startups sabotage themselves by spending their limited money on the wrong things.) So, all the vibes I've gotten so far are good, but I'll be able to judge how things stand better when I've had a chance to chat with some investors.

For now, I'm giving it a 60% chance its real. Hopefully the odds will increase as I get more info.

Woohoo!

[designergirl.livejournal.com]

Well, I certainly feel better about it after reading this! =) It sounds like you have a really good chance with this and it's not going to be anything you did or didn't do that will determine whether or not the business takes off and they can hire you permanently.

I don't doubt that you'll put in 110% in the work they ask you to do. I can tell by just reading your journal that you take your work seriously and you work hard at whatever you're doing. *smile*

Keep us posted!