A new manager asked for an external assessment of our software for scalability and sustainability for next investment round.. I’m the technical co-founder (very few equities though), we are only 3 developers and I’m still very involved in programming. I’m probably more like the lead engineer than a CTO. We are in the 5th year,…

We’ve been building this startup for the past two years. We’re bootstrapped and everything was built with our own money and re-invested profits. Life was difficult and for the better half of this year we’ve had many arguments and differences of opinion, but ultimately always moved forward. Now they’re offering a share buyout and bonus…

On one side, one of my friends wants to invest some money in my start-up, and on the other side we have started discussions with a business angel. Both amounts are obviously not the same and I do not believe their equity share should be the same “mathematical” formula. Any tip on how to treat…

We started the company almost 2 years ago. I’m the technical founder, he’s the business guy. The best analogy of our business is a job marketplace. We are doing pretty good for user growth for the “job seeker” user base but we haven’t signed up a single company to pay to post their job in…

I guess I’m the ADHD-preneur kind. Since I was 18, I have always been involved with multiple gigs at once. Some successful, some not. But always along with a business partner. The way I see it, having a business partner allows me to have the peer pressure I need to keep deadlines on track. Having responsibilities…

I founded an open source focused IT Consulting startup 7 years ago without any business knowledge and had to learn by doing over the years. But during all this time I was never able to really understand if I’m on the right path or if I should just stop investing my time since I don’t…

I’ve run my own fitness and health business for 17 years, and tried my hand at several ventures. I’ve employed, on and off, 14 freelance Trainers. The strong passion I once had for my business and industry has faded, and now at 45 I’m lost as to what to do, moving forward. As a personal…

Need some pointers here: I have bootstrapped a company (pre-rev) with some IP (patents) already issued a long time ago. My current employer (remember I am bootstrapping) found out about this company. While I did not use any company resources, they are on a witch hunt to prove otherwise. Can they claim anything? I didn’t…

Hello y’all, It’s difficult for me to write these words, but here we go: I’ve dated my ex-boyfriend, a brilliant Full-Stack Dev with the charisma of an Alpha-Male. He eventually cheated on me and when I found out / confronted him, he broke up with me. We founded a startup that’s really successful (we started…

I began receiving the advice and shared ideas of someone in the early days of my startup, pre-formation. There were some initial discussions about the advisor potentially joining the startup, perhaps as a co-founder, but we never conclusively agreed to anything and there are no written agreements of any sort. Eventually, another person joined my…

I was the technical co-founder of my startup so naturally, I became the CTO. I was great as an individual contributor, but as a team lead, I’ve felt completely lost, demotivated, and feel like I am not the right fit for the job. It’s very taxing and managing people is draining me completely, and none…

The person I hired to help me and my co-founder is now taking my job and pushing me out. He sucks up and agrees to everything my co-founder dreams up so he has become the favorite. I don’t know what to do …

I did a deal with a dev company -1 resource in particular – to create the MVP. It’s gone well so far but this techie has taken a job overseas (4 days a week for 6 months). My launch is time sensitive – it either goes live in 3 months or I have missed the…

Note from SA: If you’d like to respond to this journalist, you can use the ‘contact author’ link above ^^.  I’m a journalist working on a story about how the tech industry has changed, one year since #metoo began. I’m looking for founders or tech employees who can tell me about their experiences of harassment…

I am a co-founder of a company (35%) and it’s clear my other co-founder (65%) does not have the expertise to lead the company. If I were to leave this company would I be able to start a new company in the same space? I think our idea/market/product is awesome but don’t want to continue…

I started a startup four years ago, shut it down last year, and have been freelancing since then. I loved working on the startup even though it was a disaster, but I hate freelancing and I don’t have any other brilliant ideas, so I decided to try corporate life. I recently accepted an offer I…

Brought on an “angel” investor several months ago, who put in $25k along with two colleagues of mine from another business that also put in $25k. I had already developed the business plan before meeting all of them and have everything packaged, contracts and proprietary software ready to raise the full amount to build our…