Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options • Hacker News Board

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#121

Post by cocktailpeanuts » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:03 AM UTC

barrkel wrote: post #68

mixologic wrote: post #9

I didnt really see anything here of any real substance, other than OP strangely thinks that twitter is private, and that the CEO rightly advised him to link to their own product instead of their competitors. I cant really see how thats a "run in" with the CEO. All the other cultural issues he seems to bemoaning are all consequences of growth in a startup. Information flow gets harder with more people. As far as the C…

CEO rightly advised I don't think it's right at all. What gives him that right? Why is it morally wrong to do otherwise? What kind of right are you talking about?

If I was the CEO of Pepsi and saw my employee tweet how he likes Coke I would be pissed.

Morality is subjective so nobody can say what's truly "right" or "wrong", but it is true that what this guy did was not a cool thing to do. And I can imagine just reading through his post what other things he probably may have done to result in him getting fired.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#122

Post by cpncrunch » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:06 AM UTC

6stringmerc wrote: post #104

One of the major takeaways for me from this article was about how sincere feedback and contributions to the company can be so quickly brushed aside. Making improvements aren't always easy, but espousing a "two-way street" then acting very "top down" is dishonest. A cultural issue. Then I saw the communication about performance and then the firing, and I don't feel a reason to doubt the author. It's not a new story or…

>One of the major takeaways for me from this article was about how sincere feedback and contributions to the company can be so quickly brushed aside.

I didn't see that from the gitlab comments. It just looks like a technical discussion where his colleagues disagreed with his analysis.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#123

Post by gtirloni » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:06 AM UTC

newsat13 wrote: post #113

Just wanted to comment that I totally admire the bravery behind this post. GitLab definitely grows too fast (it was 200 last I checked). It amazes me that far too many here are afraid of repercussions and retaliation by future employers (just see the "warnings" about bad blood in the comments here). That too on HN (who are supposedly the idealists who want to changes the world and all that)! Seriously guys, all this…

People commenting about bad repercussions are just being pragmatic.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#124

Post by newsat13 » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:09 AM UTC

cocktailpeanuts wrote: post #116

zeveb wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Damn, that email from the CEO about his private Twitter. That's completely out of line. It regarded his professional work on GitLab: https://twitter.com/suprnova32/status/720396175954698240 I think it's completely appropriate that he link instead to GitLab for such a thing, and I think it's remarkable that he didn't think the same. This isn't like the ad world, where if your customer is Coke you can't be seen drink…

I agree with you. This is not about how many followers see this or if it undermines the company's position. It's about culture. If the CEO of the company lets things like this go, it will keep happening. And it will only get worse. From my experience, I would rather not have this kind of employee around than trying to play nice with him personally because this kind of attitude spills over and eventually affects the e…

Wow, you guys are totally off base. Do you realize it's his private twitter account and not company's? How does it matter if it's about his job? If I work for Google and I made a comment on how Bing was funny or DDG respects privacy, I don't expect Sundar to send me a mail.

What if your CEO followed all your social media and day to day life and commented on things? But yeah, from my experience, I would rather not have commenters like you around as this attitude of overseeing my shoulders in my personal twitter account spills over everywhere and affects the entire team morale.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#125

Post by cocktailpeanuts » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:09 AM UTC

Retric wrote: post #71

danaliv wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then don't waste your time. The point is, a public post like this reads badly.

I disagree, I am more likely to hier the guy after reeding this post as I want someone to know when they need help. And more importantly be willing to speak up.

Do you run a company? Or have you run a company?

I can't imagine anyone having run a company say they'll hire this person. Whether this guy was right or wrong is subjective, and people have opinions, but this type of attitude is so obviously toxic that this is almost a pattern.

There's a huge difference in someone who tell the truth to the one who needs to hear, and someone who posts it on one of these medium posts hoping that they can hurt them somehow.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#126

Post by paulcole » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:10 AM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #24

As someone who knows the CEO of GitLab, I can say nothing but amazing things about him. (Even reading through this article, you'll find nothing in it that casts a negative light on the CEO.) I'm sure there's a ton left out, and this seems like a bitter hit piece rather than a well-thought-out, balanced critique of a company.

Just curious, what's your take on the email screenshot?

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#127

Post by gtirloni » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:12 AM UTC

educar wrote: post #107

I disagree. I appreciate his courage in posting this. As an employer, this won't stop me at all from hiring him. I would definitely think about hiring you though, specially being so condescending as if you have seen it all.

If GitLab now posts about their side of the story and continues this shit show, will you think highly of GitLab too? Are you more likely to swtich from GitHub/BitBucket?

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#128

Post by cocktailpeanuts » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:12 AM UTC

GiorgioG wrote: post #91

barce wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, at the same time I would think twice before working at gitlab now. I feel the CEO or HR should have had an NDA in place with a generous severance. Also, I would be hesitant about hiring the engineer. He was given a great challenge, but instead of rising to it, he made up excuses about needing mentorship. At the very least, he could've generalized the problem, and made an open source library as leverage for findi…

> He was given a great challenge, but instead of rising to it, he made excuses... It sounds like he worked his butt off, what more do you expect? I don't scale mountains for my employer, I do what is reasonably asked of me - and it sounds like he did just that. Sounds like a typical chaotic startup culture growing too fast for its own good, not paying attention or supporting its employees' needs.

> It sounds like he worked his butt off, what more do you expect?

And where did you learn that? From this blog post? You use awful lot of "sounds like" in your comment. "Sounds like" is not enough of certainty to criticize someone.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#129

Post by newsat13 » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:19 AM UTC

gtirloni wrote: post #123

newsat13 wrote: post #113

Just wanted to comment that I totally admire the bravery behind this post. GitLab definitely grows too fast (it was 200 last I checked). It amazes me that far too many here are afraid of repercussions and retaliation by future employers (just see the "warnings" about bad blood in the comments here). That too on HN (who are supposedly the idealists who want to changes the world and all that)! Seriously guys, all this…

People commenting about bad repercussions are just being pragmatic.

And yet silicon valley and none of the million startups would be possible by being pragmatic.

Re: Why I will not exercise my GitLab stock options

#130

Post by achompas » Wed, Apr 05, 2017, 2:20 AM UTC

nandemo wrote: post #38

owenversteeg wrote: post #5

Anyone who just cares about the numbers: he was given options of 45,000 shares, of which 15,000 had vested. These 15,000, or 0.0833% of the company, were available to him at $0.27/share, or $4,050 total. So he had the opportunity to buy 0.0833% of the company at a $4.8MM valuation. Given that they recently raised $20MM at an undefined valuation it really says something that he chose not to exercise the options. I rea…

> These 15,000, or 0.0833% of the company, were available to him at $0.27/share, or $4,050 total. So he had the opportunity to buy 0.0833% of the company at a $4.8MM valuation. Given that they recently raised $20MM at an undefined valuation it really says something that he chose not to exercise the options. I normally don't comment on HN without having read TFA, but this one is way too long and I just skimmed over it…

But we don't know their private valuation as of right now. So OP isn't just out $4k+, he's also going to pay taxes on the private valuation of his shares.