Comment by jeffmould

Just curious why do you want him fired over, as the CEO suggests, finding a less critical role for him? Is your reasoning solely based on salary/equity the guy has? There may be other business related issues that you are not aware of that makes firing not the simple option (i.e. as a co-founder there is a possibility he has some form of employment agreement/contract that would give him a significant severance package). On the flip side I would say that just "burying" a poor performer is the wrong choice (the movie Office Space comes to mind).