Good reminder that founders are not your friends, even at smaller companies. With startups, there’s not only the viability of the business to worry about. You also need to be constantly vigilant about not being screwed out of the value of your equity

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Equity is air until the company IPOs. Act accordingly.

likesmart

I almost worked for mailchimp a few years back. Culture was ironclad. Their office is in a real nice building in Atlanta called ponce city market.

Few years later, the founder sold the company for $12bn after promising employees for years they would never sell. It was his excuse for not giving employees stock. The culture has taken a nose dive since then.

Don’t trust founders. The article is right, founders are not your friends. It should add “they are a business partner”.

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If you’re not going to trust your employer/founder why not take a risk as she did and start your own gig?

“Founders are not your friends” is a blanket statement that is not always true. Founders take risks and create jobs, products & services that would not otherwise exist. Thank them for their courage to start what others did not. Yes…I’m a founder.

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I’m with SMB 100%. The thing that keeps me up at night is not the size of my paycheck (smaller than it would have been if I didn’t launch a company) it is the employees

The thing that gives me greatest joy is I created a business that allowed me to employ around 200 people over the years. They learned new skills in an emerging industry, supported families, and i watched many of them grow from entry level technicians to strong managers, some launching their own businesses.
If it was about the money I would have stayed in consulting.

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article link?

helpful

What happen at Toptal is even worse. https://thehustle.co/toptal-equity-convertible-note/amp/

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That’s awful. Not the norm

Also a founder, I know my sweat equity will likely never be paid back in full. Times when I may have folded, I couldn’t because of empathy towards clients and employees. I’m a better friend to them than some will ever have elsewhere. I don’t lie to them about profitability to keep them around. They stay out of loyalty.

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Thisxwill become more common as down rounds proliferate and valuations are not what they once were. Common can get wiped.

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Why would someone post stealth for their startup on LinkedIn?

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I mean, if a PM can quit after 45 days I cant quit this soul-breaking company after 2 months.

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Broadway will officially stay dark until 2021

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