Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#71

Post by desdiv » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 4:59 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #64

desdiv wrote: post #55

I've dealt with late payroll before and the fear, uncertainty, and stress really sucked. I was even considering offering the company a 50% haircut on the wages that I rightfully earned already just so the stress would go away. Is there any bank or payroll company that offers a wage escrow service? As in, the company pays X months of wages in advance into a per-employee escrow account that's FDIC insured, and the empl…

When Target declared bankruptcy and pulled out of Canada, they setup a trust (or something) to give all employees 4 months of wages. They all got 4 months of wages, but some stores closed sooner than others, so some people ended up working for 4 months while others ended up basically getting paid to do nothing. You might look into what Target used to set this up.

Good for them. Sounds like they had to setup a trust:

>“Therefore, in what we believe is an unprecedented move, Target Corp. is voluntarily seeking to establish a trust that we will fund with C$70 million. Those funds are designed to provide nearly all Target Canada employees with a minimum of 16 weeks of wages and benefits coverage during the wind-down period.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/01/27/target-canada-severa...

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#72

Post by pyre » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:00 AM UTC

liquidise wrote: post #50

I found the bit about the negotiated salary of particular note. I have never included severance in my negotiations, mostly because i have always left my jobs willingly. Is that something more common than i know of? What is a reasonable target to aim for?

In a recent discussion, someone looking into a VP role said he was pushing for 6 months.

Someone else pointed out that some wage laws dictate a specific amount of severance that usually depends on the amount of time that you work there. Most companies go above this though (e.g. the law says 1 week severance per year at the company, but some large companies peg that at 1 month/year instead). If you negotiate for a hard number of 6 months, and you end up working for the company for (e.g.) 10 years, you could be leaving 4 months of severance on the table.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#73

Post by hackaflocka » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:01 AM UTC

xiphias wrote: post #58

chejazi wrote: post #16

Crunchbase company profile, as determined from the comments on HN: https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/1for-one

Investor $1M Isaac Choi Where's the 4M here that the OP was writing about? She could have checked crunchbase to see that the startup doesn't have money.

Is Crunchbase a 100% reliable source? How do they do their due diligence?

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#74

Post by khuey » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:03 AM UTC

hackaflocka wrote: post #52

SakiWatanabe wrote: post #31

>Michael said under his breath in our second language, “Look at those Chinese kids. They’re pretty happy they got paid, huh?” Kim (the writer) is a korean last name, is the company CEO korean too?

Depending on if Choi is a Korean last name.

Choi is a common Korean surname (4th or 5th most common, IIRC).

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#75

Post by throway29816129 » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:03 AM UTC

As a cheapo freelancer born and working in a country that ranks quite low in transparency, trust and justice system ratings, I'm used to getting shafted by people who hire my services, fail to pay, and leave me with no option to turn to for help.

But I've to say I'm shocked something like that happens even in Silicon Valley, and based on other comments here, quite often too. I don't know whether to cry for my fellow shaftees or laugh at them out of cynical schadenfreude. All I can ask is please do something to fix it effectively, because the broken window effect only makes things worse with time.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#76

Post by hobs » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:03 AM UTC

GuiA wrote: post #14

Welcome to the club. It's pretty much a rite of passage here to spend some time with a psychopath VC, a completely self absorbed CTO with a rich investor dad that fuels his fantasies, or an idiotic CEO with an ego problem, and to pay the price for it (just time if you're lucky, time+money if you're not). I've encountered this myself several times (down to the CEO using hire fast fire fast as a mantra), and judging fr…

Often the worst companies put pressure on their employees to give fake positive surveys and pretend their company is a great place to work to trick people into a year or two while management moves on.

Seen it happen at a company that was voted top xx best places to work for a few years running in the local press.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#77

Post by bArray » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:04 AM UTC

MichaelBurge wrote: post #67

bArray wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Isaac Choi" - I'm starting to imagine the lie was that he had a Chinese company scrub his name and he's not called Isaac or Michael. Having other people pay the cheques saves giving his name away too.

His real name is probably "Yi Suk Choi".

At this rate I wouldn't be surprised if it was "Mr Bean".

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#78

Post by kondro » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:04 AM UTC

desdiv wrote: post #55

I've dealt with late payroll before and the fear, uncertainty, and stress really sucked. I was even considering offering the company a 50% haircut on the wages that I rightfully earned already just so the stress would go away. Is there any bank or payroll company that offers a wage escrow service? As in, the company pays X months of wages in advance into a per-employee escrow account that's FDIC insured, and the empl…

I think it would surprise you to know the number of companies that lack the cashflow to be able to do this.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#79

Post by glimps9 » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:05 AM UTC

https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacchae1981

"Having always been the youngest person in the room, I have always needed to fight to make my voice heard. Some experiences were good, but other's turned into a nightmare...but the truth is no failure was a step back for me, rather the lessons I learned from my mistakes helped me build the foundation that I needed to succeed.

I believe that boundaries were created only to be broken both in my professional and social world. When a person is faced with the option of retreating or pushing forward it is always best to believe in yourself, your dreams, your visions and your team...nothing can be gained by losing your heart and will to moving ahead.

In short I am the person that would like to defy the odds and take my future into my own hands."

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#80

Post by foxylad » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:06 AM UTC

> The names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.

Assuming the writer is as scrupulously honest as they seem to be, how legally exposed would they be in actually naming names? And assuming they are exposed, are astute commenters who use clues from the article to reveal the company also liable?

It seems to me that it would be a HUGE public good to name the names. Employees and investors absolutely need the right to know about the people doing this; being able to safely expose them would go a long way to stopping such scum.