Years ago, my best bud Todd Sampson and I were building a company called MyBlogLog. We got an out-of-the-blue email from this cat Scott Rafer and eventually invited him onto the team.
On Scott's very first call, I was arguing with Todd about some database implementation thing. Keep in mind that Todd had been building web sites for over a decade and I had stopped doing anything technical more than five years prior. But I still had opinions.
Scott looked at me and asked, ever so politely, "Eric, what's your title again?"
"I'm VP Product, Scott."
"That's right. Good. And what's Todd's title?"
"VP Engineering."
"THEN SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ENGINEERING DECISIONS. And in exchange, we won't argue with you about your product decisions."
--
Every once in a while when I tell that story, people will say, "but Eric, in a startup, everybody needs to have a voice."
First off, no, they don't.
Secondly, it's not a blanket statement.
Does every founder need to have a voice in the mission and strategy? Absolutely. Does every founder need to have a voice when someone else is expressly tasked with that responsibility? No. No they don't.
You never have enough resources when you're starting a company. Don't waste your precious few on doubled up effort.