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Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
11–20 of 21 posts
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#12I was in a similar position once, except there wasn't really other devs (only one more than me) and there was only a single leader/owner. I liked the owner on a personal level, but his way of managing the company and the project we worked on finally made me quit when he refused to let me fix some very grief security issues in our code base.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#13What are you waiting for by staying?
I think, just being the first employee and the "rock" for other engineers (even though most have quit) leaves me feeling like I shouldn't just leave everyone high and dry.
I completely understand that, I've been there, but here's another way of looking at it:
I can't see any way this company is going to succeed. I wouldn't even think about staying without engineering a change in management, which it sounds like would require ejecting the worst of the 2 founders, assuming the other isn't also inherently a non-stay the course micromanager. And "that trick never works".
Note also their response to the this catastrophic, frequently company ending debacle; if they don't take it absolutely seriously, and as their fault, leave, the company is just not going to make it. "You can't fix stupid" is I think the maxim there.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#14Leave. Sounds like they'll fail and you'll be miserable the whole time. You don't owe anybody anything. That's what I'd do anyway.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#15two _non technical_ founders, that says everything you need to know
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#16Tell them to hire a product manager to lead the dev teams and they should go sell something or do marketing, etc.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#17I'll tell you what you came here to hear, get out.
Everybody says they are "gearing up for a series A" and many many business never get a series A, never mind one that sounds like it is in such a mess.
Unless you have some insider knowledge (hockey stick growth, profit, etc) that the series A is guaranteed, it's not coming and will be used to bait you along.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#18> The two founders are often fighting each other for power. Both are micromanaging.
Ultimately, leaving is easy. A bigger challenge is learning how to handle Micro-managing superiors. You'll likely run into some form of micro-manager type anywhere you work> https://hbr.org/2011/09/stop-being-micromanaged
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#19Stay because there is are potential upsides to staying and because those potential upsides are attractive relative to your alternatives. If there's an attractive potential upside to staying through a Series A, then stay because there is an attractive potential upside. That's not staying to 'help'. That might be an increase in value of your equity. But it's probably not going to entail much that isn't already in writing...so to speak.
To me, I doubt you can fix the situation. The founders have to desire to change the culture and make doing so a priority. If people walking out en masse doesn't inspire such change, then it ain't likely to change.
Good luck.
Re: Ask HN: Most of team quit my startup. What to do?
#20Don't stay for guilt. Don't feel that you're their last hope of making it, and therefore it you quit, it's your fault that they didn't make it. No, it's the fault of the two founders, who can't grow up enough to run a company.
Now, to your question: If you get to the series A, how much do you benefit? Is it enough to be worth the headaches?