Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
What's wrong with SLAPP?
Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
531–540 of 619 posts
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#532Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right, we should never ever do the right thing and just live in fear.
It is easy to be generous with other people's time and money, yes.
Exactly. It strikes me as the same sort of entitlement dynamic that so many open source project maintainers face. "You gave me a free thing? Well it's wrong and you should give me a much better free thing. For free!"
I don't mind people wanting things. We all want things. But I think it's a problem when that crosses the line into expectation or demand.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#533Earlier quoted context omitted.
The easiest solution is that they've simply lied to the 'H1Bs' and immigration officials as well - brought them in on tourist visas or some other arrangement.
A tourist could only stay for 6 months AFAIK. If that's indeed the case, then those guys are insane.
Once you're in the country, even if you overstay your visa nobody is going to come to deport you. The problem arises once you leave the US and want to come back again - visa overstays will be a huge black mark then.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#534Earlier quoted context omitted.
here how it happens: a company, that is not really a company, keeps applying for tons of h1b. they usually have some title like consulting. they get the h1b and don't even bring the programmers from India. they become "visa holders" companies. the h1b's then start to look for work on their own, or the holder. and once the programmer is hired, the visa holder company gets paid, take 70% (or 60% if the programmer found…
Never have I seen this laid out before like this, and so I thank you for that! I think it's a real tragedy that we can't just have a rational Visa system- you get an offer from a company, then you should be able to get a work visa. Work visas continue for as long as you are employed plus one year. That gives you a year to get a new job. This is how you attract the best and the brightest and this is what america needs…
I really dig your .plan!
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#535Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Name and shame" feels good but there's a huge danger in pillorying people just based on a single person's account. WrkRiot seems to be the company in question and their online presence is so laughable nobody here likely feels bad for making fun of them, especially because of the behaviour the author describes. But the story is not just about a company but also about individuals. Consider WrkRiot's head of marketing,…
Disagree. If somebody fucks you over, you out them. Just because it's "hearsay" in the sense that it's only one person's account doesn't mean one should have to anonymize everything.
I understand where you're coming from, and initially had upvoted your comment. The problem is that there are shifting goalposts as to the definition of "fuck over". Here specifically it's pretty clear some unethical and illegal behavior occurred. There's no question it was right to out the shitty company. But encouraging people to out people they feel they've been wronged by sets the stage for tragic mistakes. The media is especially guilty of this, even if it isn't outright libel. I would be much more agreeable to your suggestion if people were generally much less trusting. But people are really awful at critical thinking with this kind of thing.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#536This 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…
You made a tough choice between your "partner" and your team. I appreciate the way you chose, and can assure you that not many people choose that way.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#537Earlier quoted context omitted.
They should have consulted their lawyer before making that "press release," as they call it. Perhaps she could have explained to them the difference between libel and slander.
Thank you! This is probably just Tess on her own thinking she's being proactive and in charge of corporate image. Someone should tell her that accusing someone of extortion without proof is likewise libelous.
Tess, i don't remember that character in the saga? Or do you mean Jess, as in Jessica?
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#538"About a month in, our interim leader returned to Korea, and a woman was brought in who had worked at several video game companies. She used to know our CEO’s in college. She was kind, thoughtful, and attentive. I knew the company would eat her alive. After our boss departed, I took over a few of his duties. One of them was “viral marketer.” I was now creating ad campaigns on Facebook in an attempt to bring monthly a…
i'm seriously laughing my ass off literally right now... this chick just keeps finding herself scammed by startups time after time, it's kind of hilarious and sad at the same time, especially because it seems like she's still kind of positive about it lol.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#539Earlier quoted context omitted.
I remember reading a couple years ago about a company where the CEO came in and announced that they weren't going to be able to make payroll so he was going to have to lay everybody off; some of the employees left, but others stuck around working "for free", and the company turned around within a few months. A couple years later they exited and the CEO gave large gifts to the employees who stuck around because they d…
An honest CEO would have awarded stock in lieu of pay.
as an ex-CEO who offered stock to employees in lieu of pay because my startup was running low on funds, it was all rejected. i later found out when i left the room, some of the employees actually mocked me and made it seem like i was just trying to scam them. one of them said something like "he's offering us stock in a company that is basically worthless, does he think we are idiots?"
just to be clear, the company was not worthless. we were actually somewhat breakeven at that point, monthly revenue was around $15k and employee salaries were somewhere around $15-16k. the idea at the time was that if they accepted stock compensation instead of cash, the company could theoretically afford to hire more developers, or launch a more ambitious marketing campaign. i did not factor in the fact that these employees weren't invested in the company, and to them, the fact that we weren't making millions in revenue means we are broke. so they value the stock at zero.
just to conclude the story: i ended up selling my company to another large company for a small profit (not headline-making numbers), enough that i can live comfortably and continue pursuing entrepreneurship dreams while not being employed. the employees who would have received stock back when i offered it would have made a profit, although in all honesty it's not Google or Facebook money. just for fun, i did a quick calculation on how much one of the employees who refused the offer would have made in stock - it was roughly about $250,000 worth.