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…

My partner and I were friends for awhile before we decided to put up a business together. We were pretty aligned throughout the first few years until he started becoming negligent, passive, and somewhat lazy. To keep responsibilities equal, tasks were still divided but he would end up forgetting his end of the job and…

My partners and I started a boutique software development firm and we’ve been going at it for 5 years now. We’ve grown the company considerably and have been seeing good numbers year after year. However, I am totally burned out. I am overwhelmed with all the projects/clients that we have, I struggle with my partners’…

I got an offer from a fintech startup to come on board as their most senior specialist, 3 founders, employee number low single digit offer. Successful series A funding, several millions in the bank, ready to build for quite a while, very attractive business idea and strong founders team. If I jump, I would have to…