I'm friends with two past YC co-founders. Both of them held a title similar to CTO and implemented the majority of the company's initial technical IP. This IP wasn't just back-end system design but included novel machine learning and optimization technology, and the companies were both offering ml/optimization as a service.
Both of these co-founders were fired by their other founders and their boards. In both cases, the other founders were not /particularly/ non-technical-- one co-founder had a scientific PhD and the other had a CS degree from a top school. In one case, I had worked with the CTO previously, and my take was that he was fired over mostly mild culture issues that I could see resolved easily at a larger company. In both cases, the boards seemed to struggle dearly with the CTOs' technical interests & communication abilities.
What advice can you give to ml/optimization start-ups to avoid this "fired CTO" problem? Do you think these start-ups underestimate the non-technical value (e.g. for recruiting) of a strong scientist?
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I'm friends with two past YC co-founders. Both of them held a title similar to CTO and implemented the majority of the company's initial technical IP. This IP wasn't just back-end system design but included novel machine learning and optimization technology, and the companies were both offering ml/optimization as a service.
Both of these co-founders were fired by their other founders and their boards. In both cases, the other founders were not /particularly/ non-technical-- one co-founder had a scientific PhD and the other had a CS degree from a top school. In one case, I had worked with the CTO previously, and my take was that he was fired over mostly mild culture issues that I could see resolved easily at a larger company. In both cases, the boards seemed to struggle dearly with the CTOs' technical interests & communication abilities.
What advice can you give to ml/optimization start-ups to avoid this "fired CTO" problem? Do you think these start-ups underestimate the non-technical value (e.g. for recruiting) of a strong scientist?
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