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Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

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341–350 of 619 posts

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#341

here you go. choiwisely 8 hours ago [-] > Employees and investors absolutely need the right to know about the people doing this "Michael" the CEO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isaacchae1981 "Charlie" the CTO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/albrown "Jessica" the CMO: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tess-stevens-28bb9138 Company: http://www.wrkriot.com/ + https://www.linkedin.com/company/7587861

Charlie is part of "Tech Coast Angels" so thats the first red flag.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#343

Singaporean startup founder here who moved from the US. I have yet to meet a psychopathic CEO here in Singapore, but I've met and heard about quite a few in Silicon Valley / Bay Area. It may just be selection bias (a lot more companies are founded in the Bay Area) but I wonder if there's something more. Any other insights into Bay Area startups vs. international startups here?

I had a Singaporean (from Inida) "investor" sign docs only to stall, lie, and eventually fake wire transfers (also from wells fargo, which is ironic in this article). Tried to forget the guy, but think he first name was Sumanth. Be careful if anyone comes across this fraud!

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#344

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?

Typically executive level hires negotiate severance from the start.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#345

Perhaps the person who wrote this article is smarter than we think and this is some intricate marketing plot designed to draw traffic and attention to wrkriot?

Except that this brought a lot of bad attention to the company and the people who work there

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pay people in regular ways through regular channels. Seriously, though, ADP delivers paystubs. If they were using ADP, they would have gotten paystubs.

When a company has just started, they may have not set this up. You can invoice the company. It's not a big deal. Again - of all flags - lack of pay stubs is the least of them if it's just a garage startup with 3-ish people. The actual exchange of money is 100x a stronger indicator of health than the presence of a stub.

The CEO blamed ADP for the payroll being late. When you combine that with the lack of paystubs, if alarm whistles aren't going off, you are just not paying attention.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#347
post #220
post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's nothing unique to SV or startups. In most European countries, not paying your employees in the course of delaying bankruptcy on purpose will be a jail term. I was under the impression that California (as opposed to the rest of the US of A) had pretty strict workforce protection laws, too.

Laws still require enforcement. And from what I've seen California is a bit over-hyped in many ways, including how liberal/progressive it is, how hard it is to start and run a business, and how well it protects employees.

My tl;dr layman's understanding is that in CA, missing a payroll equates to the company is no longer a going concern. It's a serious problem to miss a payroll, and this is a good thing. If you are responsible for payroll at a CA company, you need to see a potential shortfall coming well in advance and respond preemptively by negotiating [hopefully] temporary salary cuts with your employees or preparing the team to go on unpaid leave (this is legal - you should continue paying their insurance premiums though).

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#348
post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, but that's not the point. Not everyone has $50k and the time to fight a libel/defamation suit.

California has a broad anti-SLAPP law that would keep this from costing $50K. She would likely win attorney fees as well. IANAL.

That acronym should really not exist.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#349

This is Charlie. I met the CEO (not sharing his name, though it is in this thread) through his brother in law, Jay. Jay worked with me at a prior company. He was a data scientist and factual. He mentioned his brother in law came to Silicon Valley to do a startup having made some money as an investment banker. As we talked, the CEO stated he is putting in $2M to fund the startup in November. In December, with $400k or…

Man, I feel really bad for you being out $200k (if that number is correct). What did Isaac say to you to convince you to put in that much of your own money?

How much equity were you able to hang on to when you left? (Not that it will probably ever be worth anything :/)

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#350
Red flag #10: There’s a huge moral and legal difference between buying time with lies versus calculated fraud

Maybe legally, but not so much morally. The lies are part of calculated fraud. Nonetheless, a very good cautionary tale. I've seen several friends of mine chase "Too Good To Be True" dreams.

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