TGT English Teacher

My co-founder is a genius coder and that's the fkn problem

I'm 23M. My friend, same age as me, is literally one of the most brilliant programmers I know - built his first app at 15 and won every hackathon in college. We started a SaaS startup 6 months ago that helps small businesses automate their inventory. Got a 500k seed round cause investors loved his tech demo. But I'm losing my fucking mind dealing with him. He codes like a genius when he wants to, but that's the problem - when he wants to. Won't show up till 2pm cause "he codes better at night". Won't push updates for weeks then drops massive changes at 3am that break everything. Our beta users are pissed cause features they need are sitting in his "almost done" list for months while he builds random shit that excites him. I handle everything else - customer support, investor updates, sales calls, documentation, bug reports, and he still has the nerve to say I don't understand tech enough. His new gaming friends are over at our office all the time for "LAN parties" that last till morning while I'm trying to run a fucking company. Don't get me wrong - when he actually sits down to code, he's incredible. Built our core product in 2 weeks. But now he's more interested in playing League of Legends and watching coding livestreams than fixing critical bugs. Says "real startups don't have fixed hours" whenever I bring it up. I really need advice. We have a product that could be huge, users who actually want to pay us, but I'm watching it all slip away cause my co-founder would rather speedrun Elden Ring than talk to customers. I don't wanna lose a friend but my mental health is fucked from carrying this whole thing alone.

The most ridiculous reason I've seen a colleague get fired

So I joined a team at a tech company a few years ago. Initially, they had promised a great culture during interviews and later showed their true toxic colors citing management policies. We had this senior engineer who was brilliant. Now with appraisal season approaching, the management decided to collect a huge mandatory contribution for the big boss's birthday gift. My colleague politely declined because of personal finances. To this, the manager denied at first. Then he said he could skip it but his appraisal would get impacted. After further persuasion, he said, he would have not be given his bonus and he would have to pay the team for ruining the morale. The HR was no good either - toxic companies! They tried to break him every way possible when he was completely devastated by the constant harassment. He somehow held himself together and kept working after which he was abruptly terminated for a fake "culture fit" reason. Fast forward to yesterday on Monday, I found out he had applied for a small startup - they had a promising product. The manager from our old job and the founder were batchmates apparently. The manager reached out to the founder for his review (without telling him). And the manager, as expected, gave a very negative review. Thankfully, the startup looked forward to hire him given his expertise in the field. But how low do you have to stoop to ruin someone's career and be so insensitive all along just over a birthday gift. I am pretty sure, he did the same with another startup who was keen on hiring, asked for his documents and later ghosted. The VP there was a friend of the manager. It's been worrying me for a while, so wanted this out once and for all. Now that I am a manager, I give balanced feedback because i have learnt that people who probably do not thrive in one environment might do brilliantly in other setup. Who are we to judge? P.S. If you are ever in position of power, be neutral and empathetic to your juniors. Kindness goes a long way!

TCS or LTMINDTREE?

I am a 2021-25 CSE graduate. I gave the on-campus NQT on 3rd October 2024 and got selected for a Digital Role at TCS (7 LPA) today! I was already placed at LTIMindtree for the GET Role (4.05 LPA) a few months earlier. Now, based on my research, I realized that LTI's training is one of the best in the industry, and as a fresher, I really want to attend it. However, TCS is offering a much higher package! So, what can be the proper action plan to make the best of both offers in terms of learning and monetary benefits? One good piece of advice I received was to: Join LTI first (assuming they provide the joining date before TCS). Learn as much as possible during their training, and then transition to TCS for the better pay. However, I have a concern: Since LTI is a full-time offer, they will definitely generate my EPFO account (UAN). Will TCS accept me if I already have an existing UAN/EPFO account? At the same time, the TCS application form stated that candidates with up to 2 years of work experience are eligible, so technically, they might consider candidates with an existing EPFO account. What should I do? Please, any senior or brilliant mind, help me out here with solid advice! 🙏