[ones_and_zeros]

That is very unfortunate. A CTO for a well funded small tech company should have recruiting as a top priority if they are looking to grow. It is really the only metric from which to measure an effective technical executive at that stage. It doesn't reflect well if you can't hire because your messaging is off or you aren't well organized.

[adamelmore]

Now my messaging is off and I'm unorganized? I can't comment on the circumstances of the original complaint given that I don't know the identity of the person involved. I can say that I've spoken with hundreds of candidates across a variety of technical and non-technical roles. We've hired ~15 over the last year and hope to find more folks that are excited to build with us. I can also say that as a "technical executive" (ha!) my top priority is building a product that people love; hiring is a large part of that. I'd caution against coming to such specific conclusions based off of very little information.

[ones_and_zeros]

Apologies if that came across as a personal attack, just a general comment on the expectations of a very early stage CTO. To be clear I don't think your messaging is off, just that that is one of the reasons tech startups aren't able to hire, ie they don't know how to sell the opportunity.

However, if the OP is accurate it sounds like you/your organization went through at least a period of disorganization.

You deserve a ton of credit for what sounds like a sane approach to technology and including compensation upfront.

[adamelmore]

I appreciate the clarification! To be clear, I wouldn't say we've had any issues hiring, save a few hiccups on the communication end early on (I'm aware of one other out-of-band incident similar to the OP's story; perhaps the same instance?). I'm fairly confident we've sorted out any issues with the process at this point, and we're now letting everyone know where they stand consistently and in a timely manner.

[zippy786]

It's even worse if your messaging was not off and you did not reply. That shows the ethical ground you stand on. No matter how many applicants you have to reply to. 100 is not a big number anyways!