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Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
71–80 of 241 posts
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#72Hey Drinko, Normally when you give equity, their shares do not vest for at least 4 years. This is usually the case in most of the employee contracts. Also usually if any co-founder/employee leaves before an year she gets no equity. This is the standard. As for getting the project finished, realistically learning django now is not an option. Outsourcing is an option but I wouldn't recommend it. You don't want to outso…
I wouldn't sign on to a startup with no employees, no code, no long-term funding, and no revenue for a 6% (or 35%) vested stake.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
She's taking a full salary, which by itself negatively affects the startup's chances for success. She's not taking enough risk to get anything close to 35% in my opinion. It doesn't get more sweetheart that that. Too bad she was too dumb to realize that her good position could have been very good later on.
If her work makes or breaks the company, and she's worth more than 80k on the open market, and she isn't "65% stake confident" in the founder, it's not a "sweetheart deal". It's a sucker's bet. Again, it seems like you're talking as if there were "rules" about equity participation. You would have to have an absolutely awesome idea to make, for instance, a security researcher participate in a startup for no salary. Ev…
It is a marketplace. A marketplace where I know that good people exist that will not draw a standard salary and demand equity at the same time. (at least not in the levels we're using here)
And I don't care what you're doing, if it takes 12 months to get a prototype in django, you aren't worth 80K.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
pg, The idea was that always that she would be a full co-founder. We agreed on a low equity split initially because of the asymmetric risk we were taking. The idea was always to increase her stake 6 months into the project, but not in the way it happened. I met her through a friend, and 3 months ago would have been proud to call her my cofounder. I am going to learn to hack regardless, I am just trying to figure out…
... as the payoff for learning to hack will be a few months. It doesn't have to be that long. Do you have any programming experience? Do you have any friends that do? With a smart friend guiding you through, you can skip a lot of annoyances when you learn to program. This is also a prudent point - what have you been doing the last 12 months? That would have been more than enough to get the hang of Django...
I don't have any programming experience beyond BASIC as a 5th grader.
Market research, ethnographic study, trying to raise more funding,(too early for VCs here, and there are not many risk taking angels here), running the ongoing alpha, liaising with patient groups, and health organisations, writing copy and designing interfaces. Learning about tech startups is a phase transition from the perspective of a nurse.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#75Earlier quoted context omitted.
i assume you made this comment because somebody downmodded you for no real reason? that seems to be happening a lot in the last few days. i'm seeing lots of comments at zero points that didn't deserve it, so i bump them back up to one. i think we've got a silent karma troll.
Sorry, I just thought it was amusing. I don't really care. To make this thread slightly more productive, I will recommend one such consultancy: Blue Flavor.
I will recommend one such consultancy: Blue Flavor.
Since you're plugging them, could you disclose your relationship?
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't sound particularly like she believed in the idea. I think in retrospect it would have been better to offer 50% and the same salary as you. Going forward though, I'd say definitely learn to hack. Also find people who might help not because of a salary, but because they think the idea is cool and want to be part of it.
Why is "learning to hack" the answer here? Doesn't that leave this person with a startup with no team?
No one is saying learn to hack is the solution to the issue. Regardless of doing it alone, or finding a team, it'll be an invaluable tool. It'll help him play a more significant role if a team was formed.
Stop refuting everyone's opinion.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#77Earlier quoted context omitted.
It doesn't sound particularly like she believed in the idea. I think in retrospect it would have been better to offer 50% and the same salary as you. Going forward though, I'd say definitely learn to hack. Also find people who might help not because of a salary, but because they think the idea is cool and want to be part of it.
Why is "learning to hack" the answer here? Doesn't that leave this person with a startup with no team?
Either learn to hack, or find others who are passionate about the idea who can hack. Rather than people who are passionate about a salary. But doing both is a good idea IMHO.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#78Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#79Ouch. I suppose the moral of this story is to make sure you draw a line between employee and partner right up front, and be very firm about the roles. Obviously, ee's get a paycheck and little else, and partners equity and a little paycheck. Sounds like you put yourself in the position where an ee could hold you for ransom. You were paying her a good salary, and she had no risk. Lesson learned huh? So what do you do…
Not to be argumentative, but just to talk straight: you can "draw lines" between employer and employee all you want, but if both parties are rational, it's the market that enforces the line, not you.
In other words, if you bring very little to the table, and your "employee" brings a lot to the table, you're setting yourself up to fail by being "clear" about an untenable arrangement.
Re: Ask YC: Startup crisis. Out of money and tech co-founder has bailed.
#80drinko -- maybe you could give me a shout, pcc5757 AT gmail.com (just a temp addr, will pass you the real one once we start talking); can't promise anything, but might be able to help.