Nominate I’mSoftware for vacant CTO

[Killswitch]

Logic

It is vital that the dev team stay united at this point and that they are organized quickly to function with maximum efficiency.

In all our interests, they need to finish shipping Trident and the other projects in an orderly manner. Sushi is a working product, vagueness or delaying this process is in nobody’s best interests.

This proposal is designed to temperature check the community’s support for appointing I’mSoftware as the new CTO (Executive Chef).

It does not by intention define salary at this point. I believe the community, I’mSoftware and the team should negotiate this in advance of a full snapshot if the community indicates support for this candidate.

Nominate I’mSoftware as CTO (Executive Chef)

I’mSoftware has proven himself to be more than capable of this role through his commitments to sushi alone. Further to this, he has the respect and support of his current and previous colleagues.

BoringCrypto and Levx have both endorsed him publicly and have spoken of his competence to ship Trident and lead the dev team forward. LevX and Boring have famously not always seen eye to eye, but they do fully agree that Matthew has proven his dedication to SushiSwap and his passion and loyalty speak volumes to his work ethic and unite even divided camps.

There will always be contrasting personalities and different opinions in a world class dev team, if there wasn’t we probably don’t have enough devs. This won’t change and I believe the shared opinion of these two Sushi OG devs on Matthew is evidence of his ability to communicate effectively with many varied colleagues

His commits also speak for himself - (matthewlilley (Matthew Lilley) · GitHub)

For these reasons, I nominate I’mSoftware to become CTO ( aka Executive Chef aka Lead Dev)

His Bio link from early days before becoming a full time contributor : HackMD - Collaborative Markdown Knowledge Base

A FEW INTERESTING TWEETS:

⟠ Anett ⟠ anett.eth 🪐

Maka (🍣, 🍣)

Daniele 🧊🧙‍♂️ (🎩, 🎩)

Making a quick temperature check for this:

• YES! Nominate I’mSoftware as CTO
• Not Needed

[pegbit]

Can confirm that Matt is a GOAT! Never had any negative interactions or experiences with him, unlike Joe. Matt has also been instrumental in leading our multichain efforts at Sushi. This is bullish for $SUSHI!

[nickjrishwain]

Based on a commentary from those I respect, such as Pegbit and Maka, I am not opposed to this placement for a CTO. My disclaimer being, that I don’t think this should replace further discussions on code of conduct, structure, leadership, and comp as were identified in the forum discussion.

[maka]

Know where I stand.
Fully support Matt for the role.
Whilst whole heartedly agreeing with Nick, that it cannot mean an end to org restructure, code of conduct, and compensation.

And much love Killswitch, so glad we didn’t lose you.
As Peg says this is Bullish.

[GoldenNaim]

If Matthew agree, I really think he has the skill to understand what Sushi is, from where Sushi come, and what Sushi must become to stay competitive.

It’s a big yes for me.

[rsk]

Its time to let our developer team to work away from all the drama and Matthew is the right person to lead. He has support of the team members and also from prominent sushi contributors of the past. Trident is important for sushi to remain competitive on the AMM market and I am confident our developer team will deliver with Matt steering the ship.

[ControlCplusControlV]

I am fully supportive of Matthew as CTO, I think we should mention that his salary should reflect his amazing talent, we cannot afford to lose him and I think we should make sure that we cut him an exceedingly generous deal (Not entirely sure on rates but like 400k to 500k annually?).

[0xivy]

I am not against this, but I think we should formally interview before we put anyone in a position of power; just because your a great one job doesn’t automatically make you a great leader. We should refrain from voting people solely on popularity.

What is the communities standard and expectations of this role?

Do we feel they have demonstrated the leadership we want?

What will they do differently than the previous leadership?

Do they have experience leading a team of this size?

Do the people who have worked closely with them hold them in high regard?

Etc

[mans72]

Matthew is obviously very good at what he does but i agree with this. Not every fantastic dev is C-level material or even a great manager for that matter.

[ro5s]

I can speak to Matthew’s dedication to Sushi and skills as a full stack developer who knows the product line. Among examples, he executed Sushi’s launch on Arbitrum, giving the community a significant first-mover advantage: https://twitter.com/MatthewLilley/status/1432984067146985474?s=20

From my perspective, Sushi needs to focus on executing product launches while there is greater discussion and planning on restructuring the orgs that work for the DAO - moving quickly to fill
in leadership, accountability for these launches is helpful.

[levx.io]

I fully support him but what about having him as the executive chef instead of CTO?
It’s not because he would corrupt but because I believe having cxo positions isn’t a DAO way.

[Chillichelli]

Absolutely got my vote.

Matthew’s has proven himself the backbone of Sushi. He takes initiative when no one else does and has been juggling multiple projects over the last couple of months.

[hhk]

Fully support this proposal as well but maybe more as an “interim” CTO.

So dev team can focus on shipping trident while community continues to work on the new structure.

[orionmuir]

Agreed his worth ethic alone makes him stand out better than anyone we will find in the short term. I think that interim would be better. In been a choatic time, it is hard to know how exactly team dynamics will be after all of this. I know I got a lot of feedback that it would be good to outsource this position to someone outside of the team. For now he is the hero we want and need. My thought is CTO with a reevaluation at Q2.

[mgoesdistance]

I like the proposal to make it an ‘interim CTO’ for a defined term (6 months?), with a community vote at the end of it, to make it permanent. In terms of compensation, I would lean towards a heavy focus on vested options or performance-based bonus rather than base pay, to align incentives.

[Kakumei]

A bump that this is still, in my opinion, the most important proposal currently being discussed - in terms of timeliness and need to resolve.

We need someone from within the dev team with a broad knowledge of all of our products (namely Trident tho) and the ability to keep them maintained and on track in their development. I’m Software/Matthew Lilley has been maintaining and building Sushi from within the team and is, for the most part, one of the only Core members to remain impartial throughout everything going on rn.

A focus back on development and more open access to the core & development team in operation will, imo, go a long way to helping community and outside advisors etc., have a better understanding of a lot of the discussion that is currently ongoing. As long as Matthew is willing to operate the “CTO” position as transparently as possible in order to help guide the further conversation around org restructure, I don’t see why this proposal shouldn’t be focused on first by the community.

Even though, let’s be honest, all the restructure/merger/what is DAO? conversation is way, way more interesting - it can be taken slower if we have Sushi operating well in the background.
We need to stabilize the ship before we can talk about any changing of direction <3

[maka]

Agree.
If willing, I would love to see a proposal for interim up soonish.
Would give time to work on restructure, while pushing forward in strong hands.
Is vital to hit the ground running come new year.

[0xMaki]

Voted For, I’m Software is great

[nickjrishwain]

This is very reasonable and I’m inclined to agree with this prospect. I would like to avoid hiring or appointing anyone based on popularity.

The questions you ask are reasonable and what we should expect for leadership.

Kind of goes hand in hand with the CEO position. We should consider all reputable and qualified candidates.

[nickjrishwain]

Would go further to say an interim CTO would also suffice. Anything that allows the dev team to work towards shipping as the rest of us deal with code of conduct, restructuring, leadership and compensation.