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Comment by brianwawok | Hacker News Reader

How big is your company?

As a rank and file employee, I get the idea to say "my kinda sorta work related thing I do outside of work hours is my own property"

As a CTO, that seems weird. All of your energy should be going into your business. If you have time to manage side projects in addition to being a startup CTO, is CTO the right role for you?

Not to say all code you wrote for your entire life now belongs to your current company. But it seems like you have passions and you can now use these at your job. Isn't that the dream setup? Just make sure you are fairly compensated for the gains the company makes, and it should be reasonably fair? Hard to know more without details of what you are talking about...

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> If you have time to manage (side projects|hobbies|sleep|exercise|health) in addition to being a startup CTO, is CTO the right role for you?

My answer, as a fellow startup CTO, is a resounding "yes." In fact, my activities that take place outside of work are crucial to my wellbeing and job performance.

Hey, you can't change a quote and then respond to it trying to make me sound stupid.

This was my quote:

> If you have time to manage side projects in addition to being a startup CTO

And I stand by it. If you are running the tech side of a young company, and want to go home and code for 3 hours on another tech startup, I am not sure you are giving your full effort as CTO. (Because at a young startup, CTO is often title inflation for "head coder dude"). At a more established company where a CTO is more the political figurehead of tech, things are different. But I was not getting that vibe from OP.

And yes, the quote you invented for me

> If you have time to manage (side projects|hobbies|sleep|exercise|health)

All but side projects are things you SHOULD do as a CTO or founder. I would not look down on a guy I hired as a CTO having hobbies, or exercising, or sleeping. In fact I do all three.

But if I was in a company of 4 people and hired someone to be a CTO... and he went home to spend his spare time coding a similar product and wanted IP to stay his? I would not be so happy

"Startup CTO" is like "food". Broccoli and Ice Cream are both food.

We are talking at too high of a level to make any sweeping statements (food is what you need for a healthy breakfast!) that will be relevant to all people calling themselves a startup CTO.

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