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Ask HN: Investors have lost faith. Next steps?

4 points by davman ↗ HN
I was brought in as a lead engineer in a startup project inside an already established company, given the brief that the project is "well funded" and has "every opportunity".

Its now 6 months later, we have the beginnings of a product that I believe is marketable, and now the board of directors for the parent company has called a meeting next week to discuss whether or not to cancel the project.

Essentially they want financial projections for the next 3, 6, 12 and 24 months and are expecting us to turn a profit in the next 6 months.

I'm not really sure what I should be doing at this point. Are these unrealistic goals? I'm sure we can get customers in the next month or so, but a profit?! Not in 6 months, no way. How do I explain that this just isn't going to happen...

Really lost right now, gave up a stable and secure job for this.

11 comments

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godot
If this is a project inside a big, established company, it should be relatively easy to move horizontally to a separate project (perhaps no longer as lead engineer).

If it's a relatively small company, then it sounds like there's some issues with management and the board. Might be time to start interviewing at other places.

davman
It's a small company. I'll start looking elsewhere, thanks for the tip.
imhoguy
What? Engineer is about to be dragged into some collar meeting to present 2 year ROI numbers? Where is the guy who told you about "every opportunity" or some business owner? Looks like you are the last one accountable on the ship.
grizzles
In my experience, they won't learn and you need to get out.

I've been in this situation before, with a team that was ridiculously over performing and management that just couldn't stop pouring the pressure on. It didn't end well with the company shooting itself in the foot by creating a turnover problem at a crucial moment. The loss of those engineers sunk a successful product. Even the CTO, who was one of the cofounders left.

In your case, I suggest you give them the best dog and pony show you can. Mention a few big successes that almost didn't get made, and show overall positivity. Be honest and tell them their expectations are unrealistic but demonstrate an interest in trying your hardest. Then I'd try until you find something else asap.

davman
Yeah it feels like there has just been crazy pressure from day 1. We've churned out what I would call an amazing amount of features for a team of 2 engineers + 1 designer, but nothing we produce ever seems to be enough.

I'll try and find examples of other "near misses" and see what we can do.

crazypyro
Can you provide more information about the leadership of the project? Are you the one who directly reports to the board of the parent company?

If not, I don't expect that you are in a very strong position to play a significant role in whatever happens, so I would immediately start looking for outs, whether that be from the project or the larger company.

davman
I don't report directly, but am being pressured by the business owner to "have something in the market" by next Tuesday, and figures for when I expect the business to be profitable.
twunde
The situation is not hopeless, the team hasn't been laid off and you've been warned about what's going on. What the company needs is at least one champion among the board members. This means you need to start pitching now. Talk to the project's sponsors, make sure they're actively reaching out to their bosses and people in positions of influence. You should be working with a PM/exec to come up with a narrative and refine it into a pitch. You need to work with them to lay out options and benefits/risks and decide which of these you're going to emphasize in your pitch to the board. Executed successfully, you should have gotten sponsors and allies within the parent company to get word to the board member that there is a reason to support the project.
thiagooffm
I agree.

If the situation goes bad, you can always find a new job, but there's a big opportunity for you to step up and try to do something new that isn't coding.

When the house falls down, you leave. But while it's up and running, you stay there and try to keep it up.

davman
Yeah we've done a hard push this last month or so doing demos and such to potential clients. Everyone seems very excited by it, just struggling to get people to sign on the line!

Lots of people saying that it seems fantastic but they already have systems in place that would be too difficult to replace.

Two strong leads but they won't be meeting with us until after the board meeting so we can't really use them as "guaranteed" sales to encourage the board.

waibelp
Your project manager / business developer should ask itself that questions and find an answer - not your (dev)-job.

I'd been in the same situation but could change "projects" at an early stage. After 2 years of wasting 8 developers for a useless product (in my opinion) 9 devs out of 10 were laid off resulting in a freeze in the project and there's just one developer left... The reason was mismanagement and closed eyes/ears and finally the management asked developers to find a solution for missing USP ;-)

Like some other mentioned: Start looking for other job offers, keep calm at your current job & be prepared to switch to a new company or start negotiations for better conditions (depends on where you are and if there are other people willing to do your work).