[spullara]

This is the position I was in starting in about 2001 at BEA Systems when I started helping out on tech due diligence for acquisitions. It sounds to me like you would make a good founder. Sadly, there are few strong engineers that can also work on the strategy of the company. I'm not sure why you are being asked to go out after work a lot, that doesn't seem necessary, but certainly having a voice at the top and a keyboard at the bottom has been very powerful for me. Maybe you just need to make it clear what kinds of things besides engineering interest you and things that you are not interested in doing. If you are truly not interested in directing the course of the company I can only assume that you need to stop telling them the right things to do...