Were all the people that were hired cofounders? Also, why would you need a hired CEO, wouldn't your friend fill that role? The arrangement you all had seems strange.
Three cofounders, three advisors. I think my friend's thinking was that we'd have someone from technology (me), a scientist (him) and a business person (the CEO), but unfortunately it turned out that picking someone at random to be the CEO of your company isn't the best strategy.
I advised that my friend become CEO instead and that the then-CEO become more of an operations person (COO? Titles in a three-person startup are weird), which was a role the CEO wanted more anyway, but I think the advisors didn't want to go for that.
