FdG Working with me

Francisco de Gouveia

Working with me

“If you do something that is different from what everybody else is doing, you’ve got two advantages.

One is you may succeed where they fail, of course, but even if you fail you will gather information that they don’t gather.”

Robert D. Maurer, 1995 interview, quoted in Jeff Hecht, “The Breakthrough Birth of Low-Loss Fiber Optics,” Optics & Photonics News, 1 March 2020.

Delivery

  • I move fast to learn.
  • I invest in quality as the stakes rise.
  • I protect cost when runway matters most.
Delivery balance across quick, good, and cheap Delivery priorities form a contextual range across quick, good, and cheap. No position maximizes all three. Quick Good Cheap
You can’t have it all; the question is where to compromise. For prototypes and experiments, speed matters most, with a minimum quality bar: it should work. Once an idea is validated and has users, the balance should move toward Good. When money runs short, cost efficiency takes priority.

Communication

Communication toward me

Preferred communication toward me A marker sits strongly toward candid and between contextual and concise, leaning concise. Diplomatic Candid Contextual Concise
Be candid and give me the context.

Communication from me

Communication from me A marker sits moderately toward diplomatic and between contextual and concise, leaning contextual. Diplomatic Candid Contextual Concise
I lead with context and deliver difficult messages with tact.

Decision making

I make decisions based on context, opportunity cost, and the consequences of being wrong. I value clear ownership, welcome challenges, and prefer making informed decisions over pursuing certainty indefinitely.

I commit to decisions, not to being right about them. When circumstances change or new evidence emerges, I'm willing to reconsider, acknowledge mistakes, and adapt.

Boundaries

CTO and CEO responsibility boundaries The CTO owns engineering, architecture, and execution. The CEO owns commercial work, fundraising, and sales. Strategy, priorities, and trade-offs are shared. Both depend on shared information and mutual accountability.

Partnership

Partnership preference for autonomy and transparency The marker shows a strong preference for both high autonomy and high transparency.

I value clear ownership and the freedom to make decisions within our respective domains. For significant decisions, I prefer being consulted before the call is made, without expecting to have the final say.

I want us to be independent in execution, but connected in direction.

Conflict

Two perspectives converge into one direction In private, CTO and CEO perspectives cross as they challenge, listen, and adapt. They converge before continuing in public as a shared direction.
I welcome disagreement and constructive criticism. I prefer resolving tensions privately, adapting where necessary, and communicating a consistent direction. I can accept differences of opinion, but not repeated violations of our agreements.

Pressure

Sustainable pace with occasional short bursts of exceptional effort A continuous medium-low intensity Monday-to-Friday grid with subtle brightness variation represents a sustainable working pace, with normal weekends left empty. Four irregularly spaced brighter clusters are distributed unevenly across days from Sunday through Saturday, each within a two-week window. They represent occasional periods of exceptional effort.

Outcomes over hours, going the extra mile when the stakes justify it. I will challenge manufactured urgency and protect sustainable ways of working.

When intensity becomes unsustainable, I address its causes rather than simply pushing harder.

Exceptional effort is sometimes necessary. It should never become the expectation.

Daily rhythm

Ideally, my working day tends to start later and peaks in the afternoon.

Preferred working rhythm by local hour Preferred working rhythm across a 24-hour day, concentrated between 09:00 and 20:00 and strongest in the afternoon. Peak
This is the optimum for peak performance, not a rigid constraint.