as a former staff engineer, now 'just' a senior, who's had to resign from places like this, this guy drank the kool aid and is probably almost certainly a yes-man. I mean, a staff engineer with a direct like with the CEO like this? I've been in these kinds of places. It's not one where you want to be a suck-up. I've been invited to 'hackathons' at a CEOs house over a weekend. Gladly declined. He sounds like someone who would go to those. I was engineer #15 at a startup. A staff level at proton he might be something like that at best, but I'd bet later for proton, unless they don't have architects.