I'm in need of enlightenment.
Decision: - Bring a CTO onboard from YC Cofounder Match who seems hungry and determined - Continue solo, win 5-7 $10k pilots + complete Pharma one and go for seed and find / hire a CTO (e.g. $200k + 5-10% and/or via founding engineers, same salary + 3-5% (since i have more equity to give for the hungry ones))
Current setup: - Solo founder, business + technical. Did both. - 2 years of 6-7 pivots, building enterprise agents and specialized niche tools. - 2-3 iterations of an MVP.
Traction: - 1 paid pilot with largest site of a global Pharma company. Another one in the making (all secured past 3 months) - Won an RFP with global chemicals - 110 locations (in the making, tariffs put it on hold) - Did 14 free teasers ~1 year ago that resulted in insights and data for the models but no follow-on production implementation. - 400+ discovery calls, 30-40 accounts in pipeline
I've been continuously up-skilling on sales / enterprise and making it faster to yes/no and account qualification etc.
My questions: - Is YCCM strong CTO profile reasonable at 15% standard vesting + 5% performance bonus + salary post fundraise, given my current stage? He expects 40%. I want a strong committed / hungry partner / partners, without spooking potential investors or getting scammed. - Should I wait for more progress? I want to move much faster (3x+ current speed, which is driven mostly by sales, but good product can help a lot)