[gnicholas]

Thanks for clarifying. Where did your funding come from, and are those funders aware of the situation? I would tend to agree with others that you may just need to start over. Of course, you want to make sure the CEO is out of this entity, so that he/she doesn't later claim that NewCo appropriated technology/IP from OldCo, and that he/she is owed a chunk of NewCo.

[micecof]

The majority of our pre-seed funding comes from a US-based VC firm with an uncapped SAFE. And our investors haven't been made aware of the situation yet, but we are thinking about informing them on Wednesday this week.

Thank you very much for the suggestion, we have also thought about starting a new entity, but we are not so sure on how to transfer our assets (SAFE note, domain, IP, employees, customers, code bases, etc) to the new entity, and how this would affect the relationship with our existing funders.

What do you think the pros and cons would be?

[gnicholas]

I would suggest talking with your funder ASAP. They will know how to deal with this and will be motivated to help. They can also pressure the CEO in a way that you cannot.

It may blow things up, but I think it's your best chance at survival. Just my 2¢ as a guy on the internet with an opinion!