If you feel that you've been used, you're right. Here's how you know:
1) did your co-founder grasp your skill level when you were both starting the firm? I 100% suspect you were forthright and yet your cofounder/ceo ran with you.
2) I'm sorry to break it to you, but you probably already suspect. For reference, read how Larry Ellison pushed out every one of his cofounders of Oracle in order to get the pie. Zuckerberg: did the same thing. Bill Gates and Ballmer pushed out Paul Allen in the early days of Microsoft. Yet Allen and some of Zuckerberg's 'pressured-out' victims still got paid. You need to get paid to. You got the firm to the point it's at -- your intellect, your creativity, your hard work.
3) You've already agreed to the supposition "the CEO (your co-founder) has quite a bit of confidence in the CTO."
Why is the CEO unwilling to do the right thing about you and say 'he stays, he was here first, he laid the groundwork, we got where we are because of him and me together, he stays.' That is not a good sign that your cofounder is not backing you up.
4) My older brother was in your situation, part of the original ownership of the firm, they hired a pro outsider to take the reigns to scale it. That outsider's first objective was to bring in his people and he got my brother fired. The reliable cofounders then fired the outsider. Just as in your situation, my brother had invested in the firm. You may not have a reliable co-founder. OR. The CTO is playing 'divide and conquer.' Try to figure out which is the case. If the CEO/your cofounder hedges, you can't trust him.
5) Some companies keep on cofounders even if they're 100% green about business issues. At first, Sergey and Larry (google) did not want any advertising at all. Advertising made google. Larry and Sergey were too dumb about that part. They got talked into it by pro outsiders. Then Larry waited many years but he finally runs Google. He was a grad student with zero business acumen. But they remained loyal and gave him time to learn business strategy, develop business acumen, etc. Neither Larry nor Sergey got pressured out, and if the investors tried 'divide and conquer' to steal the entire business, they underestimated Sergey and Larry's commitment to each other.
You're probably being 'pushed out' and you may be in for quite a battle -- go see an attorney and tell him what's up and do not sign anything in your startup.
Your minimal objective is 100% vesting of all your equity. If your investors get paid, then you -- most likely owner of common shares, not preferred shares -- might also get paid. But if you allow yourself to be pushed out, you've kissed away a chance at some common shares enrichment -- in a company you started. That's a huge deal. Maybe once in a lifetime. Maybe.
1) did your co-founder grasp your skill level when you were both starting the firm? I 100% suspect you were forthright and yet your cofounder/ceo ran with you.
2) I'm sorry to break it to you, but you probably already suspect. For reference, read how Larry Ellison pushed out every one of his cofounders of Oracle in order to get the pie. Zuckerberg: did the same thing. Bill Gates and Ballmer pushed out Paul Allen in the early days of Microsoft. Yet Allen and some of Zuckerberg's 'pressured-out' victims still got paid. You need to get paid to. You got the firm to the point it's at -- your intellect, your creativity, your hard work.
3) You've already agreed to the supposition "the CEO (your co-founder) has quite a bit of confidence in the CTO." Why is the CEO unwilling to do the right thing about you and say 'he stays, he was here first, he laid the groundwork, we got where we are because of him and me together, he stays.' That is not a good sign that your cofounder is not backing you up.
4) My older brother was in your situation, part of the original ownership of the firm, they hired a pro outsider to take the reigns to scale it. That outsider's first objective was to bring in his people and he got my brother fired. The reliable cofounders then fired the outsider. Just as in your situation, my brother had invested in the firm. You may not have a reliable co-founder. OR. The CTO is playing 'divide and conquer.' Try to figure out which is the case. If the CEO/your cofounder hedges, you can't trust him.
5) Some companies keep on cofounders even if they're 100% green about business issues. At first, Sergey and Larry (google) did not want any advertising at all. Advertising made google. Larry and Sergey were too dumb about that part. They got talked into it by pro outsiders. Then Larry waited many years but he finally runs Google. He was a grad student with zero business acumen. But they remained loyal and gave him time to learn business strategy, develop business acumen, etc. Neither Larry nor Sergey got pressured out, and if the investors tried 'divide and conquer' to steal the entire business, they underestimated Sergey and Larry's commitment to each other.
You're probably being 'pushed out' and you may be in for quite a battle -- go see an attorney and tell him what's up and do not sign anything in your startup.
Your minimal objective is 100% vesting of all your equity. If your investors get paid, then you -- most likely owner of common shares, not preferred shares -- might also get paid. But if you allow yourself to be pushed out, you've kissed away a chance at some common shares enrichment -- in a company you started. That's a huge deal. Maybe once in a lifetime. Maybe.