One of the most interesting company's to come out of S15. No wonder, people are coming after you. You must be doing something right. Stay at it :).
When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
11–20 of 241 posts
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#12Genuinely curious for your legal counsel's take on you posting such an article publicly. I've always thought the prevailing wisdom shared by all lawyers was "don't talk." Also, in this day and age of using services like Github for personal projects but having access to other repos, etc., using things like 1Password for work and personal things, how has the discovery process worked with everything? I'm really interest…
One of the best ways to discourage bad behavior is to shine a light on it, which is why we're publishing our story. The risk here isn't that your former employer actually has a right to your company under the scenarios you listed. It's that if they have the resources, they can bleed you in litigation before your case is ever adjudicated. It's like a form of patent trolling, they're using the process to achieve an end…
If they have the resources to bleed you in litigation, would they not have the resources to care little about bad PR?
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#13Business Insider makes an interesting claim about the boss's public statements on litigation...
http://uk.businessinsider.com/smule-ceo-shred-video-lawsuit-...
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the best ways to discourage bad behavior is to shine a light on it, which is why we're publishing our story. The risk here isn't that your former employer actually has a right to your company under the scenarios you listed. It's that if they have the resources, they can bleed you in litigation before your case is ever adjudicated. It's like a form of patent trolling, they're using the process to achieve an end…
If they have the resources to bleed you in litigation, would they not have the resources to care little about bad PR?
Depends on the company. PR is a proportional thing. If the CEO of a company is caught on video killing kittens that can kill 50% of a $100,000,000 company or 50% of $1,000,000 company. Public relations / branding is proportional in that way. Money on the other hand is slightly more constant, so in the two cases above it might be a 2 million dollar hit to each. A possible gamble to the 100 million dollar company but not to the 1 million dollar company.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#15I am sad to say I was a Smule customer, having downloaded and played Magic Piano. I also purchased quite a few songs inside the app. It is/was a great app.
Not anymore. I've deleted Magic Piano and I'll never again be downloading, purchasing or contributing to in any way Smule or Jeff Smith's companies or products.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#16I'm glad shit like this is rare enough (in silicon valley, at least) to be worthy of a post.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#17Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of the best ways to discourage bad behavior is to shine a light on it, which is why we're publishing our story. The risk here isn't that your former employer actually has a right to your company under the scenarios you listed. It's that if they have the resources, they can bleed you in litigation before your case is ever adjudicated. It's like a form of patent trolling, they're using the process to achieve an end…
If they have the resources to bleed you in litigation, would they not have the resources to care little about bad PR?
Maybe if it were Oracle, but in this case it is another startup which runs in the same circles and benefits from credibility from a similar audience, even if only for developer recruiting.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#18Business Insider makes an interesting claim about the boss's public statements on litigation... http://uk.businessinsider.com/smule-ceo-shred-video-lawsuit-...
His quote make it appear as if the lawsuit is in bad faith. If Shred wins, they may have a case for malicious prosecution.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#19Never take your former employer's code away with you, folks. It's like leaving a deliberate trail of blood in the water: the sharks will follow it.
Re: When Your Former Boss Sues You for Starting a Startup
#20Business Insider makes an interesting claim about the boss's public statements on litigation... http://uk.businessinsider.com/smule-ceo-shred-video-lawsuit-...
Wow, if an employer said that to me, I'd start sending out CVs/resumes that night. Last thing you want as an employee is to worry that your employer is going to sue you at some point down the line if you leave...
I'd go work for some other large company initially, so that if I ever did want to start a startup I am somewhat insulated from that insanity.