What do technical founders care about?
Beyond Coding
There’s a perception among entrepreneurs that technical co-founders are a brutal crowd. They’re looking for something that most can’t provide. They want the product to be at a significant maturity level so that they can climb aboard a steady ship. It’s true. Most CTO candidates have a litany of options for joining fledgling startups. Ideally, they would be joining mature startups with product-market fit.
But what they really care about is respect. Respect looks like everyone carrying their weight equally and listening to others’ opinions. Startups are not a democracy, but explaining why certain decisions were made when thoughts were offered rather than ignoring them is an emotionally intelligent and respectful leadership style.
People like to be heard.
Engineers are people, too.