Not every seed-stage startup needs a CTO. Sometimes what you really want is a founding engineer. Over the past three years I have learned how much this cuts against the default startup script. Through trial and error, I have helped half a dozen early-stage startups build products and engineering teams without giving up half the company and a board seat.
This article is a summary of the work I have done as a founding engineer so far. The point is to explain what that role is, how it differs from a technical co-founder, and when it makes sense.
What is a founding engineer?
I’m defining a founding engineer as a software engineer who:
- works with a non-technical founder to build a software product
- takes less equity than a co-founder, usually common stock vesting over four years
- takes less cash than a dev shop, usually a market-rate salary or better
- is better suited to moving fast at an early-stage company than scaling a late-stage one
- is usually there for several years, not for the rest of their life
How is a founding engineer different from a technical co-founder?
A founding engineer sits in contrast with:
- a technical co-founder. This is a real co-founder who happens to spend most of their time writing code. It is usually someone the founder has worked with before and wants to build a company with for a decade or more. The comp is weighted more toward equity than cash.
- a dev shop. Dev shops are usually cash deals. That can be fine for shipping a simple MVP or getting unstuck early, but they are usually not invested enough in the outcome to build the hardest parts of the product. Depending on the product, a dev shop can still make sense, but there is a reason some hesitate to say that.
A technical co-founder is like any other co-founder. They own a portion of the company and build the company with you. Founders can hold various roles such as CEO, CTO, or COO. In this case, a technical co-founder is likely synonymous with the title CTO.
Founders should not feel pressure to force a technical co-founder relationship. If they do not know someone they want to build a company with for the next decade, hiring a founding engineer can be the better move. Over time, that person could become CTO, or they could leave like any other early employee. There is a huge untapped group of developers who want this kind of role.
Why be a founding engineer?
Someone who could be a CTO might want a founding engineer role because:
- It is less stressful. Running a company is all-consuming if you are doing it seriously. You end up living and breathing the business, which leaves less room for everything else.
- It pays the bills. Founders should not be paying themselves great salaries early on. After years of building something that goes bust, it is easy to fall behind financially.
- Mental health. Stress from working 24/7 and stress from being financially constrained can really mess with you.
Who would want to be a founding engineer?
After selling my first company, I was exhausted. I wanted to build software without also doing outbound sales all day. Starting a company is a huge commitment if you take it seriously, which is exactly why I decided against it in late 2021. At the same time, I did not really want to go back to big tech. Having worked at Uber and Handshake, I knew how much faster things can move in pre-seed and seed land. At big tech, work really does just feel like work.
There are a lot of solid engineers who fit this mold. Many are former CTOs who know how to build quickly, do not want to work in big tech, and also do not want the operational stress that comes with founding. When I ran into this problem myself, I struggled to find a label for it. I started by taking random consulting work. The first time I helped a founder raise $5.5 million over three months, it felt absurd. The second time one of my MVPs turned into a multi-million-dollar seed raise, I knew I was onto something. At first I assumed shorter engagements made the most sense. Slice up the month, help more companies.
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After trying that for a while, I learned how hard it is to help a company succeed if they think you have one foot out the door. Longer engagements give the company a much better shot. Now I only work with companies where I make it clear I am in it for several years, not several months. Traditional vesting protects the company from giving away too much equity to the wrong person. I am happy to take a smaller piece of more companies so all my eggs are not in one basket.
At the end of the day, startups are risky. It is hard to take the kind of swings needed to build a billion-dollar company if you have nothing to fall back on. Being a founding engineer gives you a set of smaller equity bets across multiple companies, which I and plenty of other people value.
Special thanks to Burak C., Maria G., Parthi L., Parth P., Evan R., and Sarah W. for providing incredible feedback on drafts of this article.