Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#101

Post by sanderjd » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 5:59 AM UTC

cyberferret wrote: post #2

Clicked on this expecting to see another millennial self entitled "why I left" rant, but found a well written, horrifying article on deception and underhanded shenanigans. The CEO of this startup qualifies be listed under the other discussion on here about psychopaths running companies.

Odd, I've never come across a rant like that. But I do seem to see self satisfied "millennial" bashing pretty often. (I don't think I'll ever understand this impulse to ascribe vague personality traits to broad groups of people across a large number of birth years.)

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#102

Post by jboggan » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:04 AM UTC

halestock wrote: post #87

How did a company with 17 employees manage to get 9 H1Bs?

This stood out as well. I'd wager that those 9 Chinese employees might be misled about their legal status.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#103

Post by 1_listerine_pls » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:05 AM UTC

sleazebreeze wrote: post #33

krustchinsky wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like it's Job Sonic. If you look at the CEO, the information checks out.

Job Sonic -> 1for.one -> WrkRiot Each name worse than the last...

I think they are spot on. They even show the status of the company at each stage.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#104

Post by iamleppert » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:06 AM UTC

On Isaac Choi's LinkedIn page he also has the following "jobs platform": http://1for.one/

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#105

Post by Animats » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:07 AM UTC

The fake wire transfer receipt is fraud. That's a criminal offense. Have a talk with the local DA. California has a large prison system, with cell space available.

I've never heard of a startup going that far.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#106

Post by jtfairbank » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:07 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…

Agreed. Startups are incredibly hard, and this can bring out the best in people... or the worst.

Just like you, I'm early on in my career. I appreciate the incredibly valuable and lifelong lessons that I've learned from them. I feel that in the long run I'll be better off for them since I know exactly what to look for to identify bad situations before I'm in them, and how to protect myself if I do end up in one.

Most importantly, I've learned what not to do to other people and find that I've developed stronger ethics as a result.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#107

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:09 AM UTC

planteen wrote: post #19

lemonghost wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On crunchbase they are now wrkriot: http://www.wrkriot.com/team-1/

Yep. Just looked at the Wrkriot Facebook page. Previous posts have the old name... and the Spongebob memes

[deleted]

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#108

Post by hueving » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:09 AM UTC

st3v3r wrote: post #83

pyre wrote: post #59

I'm curious what the "H1Bs cannot be used to control employees because H1Bs have a process to move to another company" crowd thinks of this situation.

They'll say something about being able to leave, but completely ignoring the situation being extremely stressful and scary. Victim blaming and a complete lack of empathy will ensue.

"victim blaming" is a loaded term to avoid any examination of the responsibility of the person who got screwed. When a drunk driver rolls their car and breaks both of their own legs, it is their responsibility for driving drunk, yet you don't find many people calling that "victim blaming" or "a lack of empathy".

Anyone who uses that term tends to be appealing to emotion rather than proposing anything of substance.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#109

Post by bambax » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:11 AM UTC

> Jessica would ignore my best practices recommendations (...) and promote her “gonzo style” writings that were often filled with typos and grammatical errors.

> I don’t when or how the money became an issue

Typos happen.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#110

Post by jtfairbank » Mon, Aug 29, 2016, 6:12 AM UTC

pyre wrote: post #84

foxylad wrote: post #80

> 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…

They might open themselves up to lawsuits. Even if they will win the lawsuits, that's a money/time sink to deal with.

Instead of getting into specifics, would simply listing them as "someone I would never work with again" suffice? If enough people do this then the specifics don't really matter... the warning sign is clear.

This seems to avoid the defamation issue because it is a personal statement (about yourself / your thoughts) instead of a statement about them. They could still sue you for defamation, but hopefully you could get it thrown out early at a low cost?