Does anyone find this search results on ISAAC CHOI ironic? (Photo shows google search results with Poker Player for online gambling site as one of the top results).
Wonder where all that money went. ;-)
Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
611–619 of 619 posts
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#612Earlier quoted context omitted.
Reality is that they have opened themselves up to a case that can be brought to the DA and the DA can pursue charges against the salary fraud. If I was an American, I would be doing this regardless.... This facebook post of theirs just did two things 1.) Confirm its them. 2.) Lose them the ability to settle this quietly. They could have quietly sat down with Penny and sort this out, but they didn't... that ship has s…
Forging the Wells Fargo transfers is a crime. I don't believe you can use an NDA to stop someone from reporting a crime.
You can't stop someone from reporting a crime to the authorities, but you can definitely stop them from discussing the matter publicly (which includes talking to the press or self publishing).
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#613Another follow-up by Tess Townsend of Inc. A couple highlights: "...I'm not happy that all these names and faces are out there." -- Penny Kim Kim has received 10-20 invitations to apply for marketing positions in SV and Texas. Kim received a cease and desist order via email prior to the now deleted threat of legal action posted to Facebook. http://www.inc.com/tess-townsend/medium-post-wrkriot-viral-w...
> Kim has a couple theories as to why her post struck a chord in the startup world. First, she thinks anonymizing the startup stirred interest, referencing a concept with which she became familiar after writing the post: the Streisand effect. It's the idea that hiding information can have the unintended consequence of publicizing it by motivating people to find out what's missing.
Argh. That's not the Streisand Effect, the SE is what happens when the subject tries to suppress the story, especially using legal threats (which happened too, but only quite a bit after the Medium post was getting traction).
The name of the phenomenon of secrecy driving up interest is the Information Gap effect, IIRC. Plus, in this case, we can add rubbernecking (also known as morbid curiosity) driving up interest.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#614I think the title should be changed back. The author glosses over the single, real biggest red flag: She never received any paystubs and the company was late on payroll as of before she was hired I have never, ever been paid without either a paystub (as an employee) or generating an invoice which the business then paid (as a freelancer). The outright refusal to share how they arrived at the figure on her cashier's ch…
This is not a huge flag. When a company starts up, it's difficult for them to get the money operating as per regular. He got paid - that's what matters. The paystub is a minor thing/
That's not what matters. What matters is that the information is correctly documented. Taxes man. They make a difference. Say I make $100 a day before taxes. I get a check that shows they took out $25 for federal, $5 for State, etc. Whoopie, my take home is $70. At the end of the year I get a W-2 showing all the taxes they company took out etc..
But what if they just give me a hand written check for $70 made out to me, Joe Blow. There is no indication of taxes being taken out, but hey, I got $70, so all is great right? Wrong..
At the end of the year I get a W-9. They say I wasn't an employee but a contractor. I have no proof that they took out taxes and now suddenly I am on the hook to pay taxes to the government that were already taken out by the crappy employer and pocketed.
See the problem now?
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#615Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not disputing you, but why is WrkRiot so repellent? It's unique and recognizable. I'll admit that "Riot" is just weird, but is that the main reason? (not trolling, I'm serious)
In general misspellings are considered bad for SEO because search engines suggest correcting their name to something else. I'm not sure whether that applies here but I have seen it for startups that vowel drop weirdly, etc.
Thank you for the SEO-specific reply. I was curious about that aspect, opinions on professionalism aside.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#616Has anyone else had a similar shitty experience with a startup?
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#617I've been burned repeatedly by startups recruiting me for one role which matches my experience/skillset, then after a month or so radically changing the role to one which I'd had no experience with. I get pivoting, I get needing to be flexible, but why would you hire someone skilled in networking operations and four weeks later decide that person need to design/develop your Windows application instead? I've always be…
why didn't you just use the MVP as leverage? surely he would have given in?
I did, he held fast to his belief that we hadn't contributed enough to be co–founders nor to get the equity stakes he’d promised when he recruited us. He never raised the money he kept claiming to be raising, and never replaced us with a new team. The startup (if you can call it that) died pretty much when the founder decided to screw the rest of us.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#618I've been burned repeatedly by startups recruiting me for one role which matches my experience/skillset, then after a month or so radically changing the role to one which I'd had no experience with. I get pivoting, I get needing to be flexible, but why would you hire someone skilled in networking operations and four weeks later decide that person need to design/develop your Windows application instead? I've always be…
> verify with the investors they claim to have backing from that they've actually invested in the company. I'm curious, how would you go about doing this?
Late followup…in addition to Edgar/SEC I'd look at Mattermark, Crunchbase and Angelist. Meant to mention them earlier.
Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup
#619Earlier quoted context omitted.
ceo is probaly a con man or an idiot rich guy who inherited his money. Do a background check on him or search his name to see if any crimes come up. Chances are VERY high he kept your $200k. He will be the only one on that burning plane ride with a financial parachute.... I suggest suing him or threatening criminal charges. he might magically find the lost payroll money and reimburse you....poor h-1b visa dudes will…
He didn't keep the money. It all went to payroll.
Only if forced too....not every employee likely got payroll or maybe got a reduced amount with an IOU.