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Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

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Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#51

Post by School-Cotton »

onion2k wrote: post #8
vmception wrote: post #2

when you get thrown off of the board you still have your shares. so the trade is still successful by my rubric. I consider all things to be trades, whether I invested in a publicly traded equity, or whether I created a bunch of $0.00 par value shares to sell to a bunch of other people. the rule is the same: don't get married to a company. a board removing you doesn't need any fanfare. you still have the shares.

a board removing you doesn't need any fanfare. you still have the shares. You do, but there isn't always a secondary market to sell them on, and if you leave under a really bad cloud the board will attempt to take the shares back, or issue a bunch more for themselves thus diluting your shares in to oblivion (see Eduardo Savauvin vs Facebook for details.) I don't think you should make light of leaving "with your share…

Eduardo Saverin sued Facebook for doing that and is now worth $20 billion.

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#53

Post by mritchie712 »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #48

I always thought stuff like this happened to OTHER founders, but would never happen to me. But my board fired me six months after closing our series A. The advice in this article is 100% spot on. I didn't know any of this. I was totally focused on building my company. But if you raise money you can't do that anymore. 50% of your time will always be occupied with working on your next round of funding or managing your…

I’ve been doing a lot of research on debt as an alternative to VC. A ton of options out there. Keeping notes here for anyone interested https://www.trypaper.io/

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#54

Post by option_greek »

rsweeney21 wrote: post #48

I always thought stuff like this happened to OTHER founders, but would never happen to me. But my board fired me six months after closing our series A. The advice in this article is 100% spot on. I didn't know any of this. I was totally focused on building my company. But if you raise money you can't do that anymore. 50% of your time will always be occupied with working on your next round of funding or managing your…

That's so sad but also super impressive. I'm not sure if you are ready to but may we know your current and previous startups.

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#55

Post by nickff »

daenz wrote: post #42

I'm happy and appreciative that this advice exists, but as a tech person who just wants to build new things, it makes running a company sound like a massive drain on the psyche.

Running a company is a massive drain, and is not the best way to 'build new things'. Starting and running a company is one of the best ways to 'build a new organization'.

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#56

Post by [deleted] »

ricksunny wrote: post #37
anthropodie wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“A group experience takes place on a lower level of consciousness than the experience of an individual. This is due to the fact that, when many people gather together to share one common emotion, the total psyche emerging from the group is below the level of the individual psyche. If it is a very large group, the collective psyche will be more like the psyche of an animal, which is the reason why the ethical attitude…

So I think there’s a lot to this composite phenomenon and I wish it were studied explicitly. (Although I wouldn’t necessarily know), I’m not aware of social science / organizational behavior research that dissects the difference between an individual’s behavior and a group’s behavior that they are a member of. Yes we know about peer pressure and power dynamics (the Milgram experiment), but what are situations when an…

[deleted]

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#59

Post by PeterisP »

VRay wrote: post #50
ganeumann wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very few things in a VC-backed startup require a shareholder vote. Firing the CEO is not one of them (this is a board vote.) Electing directors to the board is not one of them (this is usually the subject of a voting agreement that ensures board representation by the VCs.) Let's say the company raises money from VC1, who buys 20%, leaving you with 80%. The contracts add VC1 and an independent to the board, alongside…

How does that work? Couldn't you fire the board and reinstate yourself if you wanted to at that point?

It works by having you sign a shareholder's agreement (at the point of investment) where you commit to voting in a certain way for certain key issues, including the structure of the board. Investment is usually not only a contract between the investor and the company, but also a contract between the (new) shareholders. You would be required to support "their representative" to be on the board, no matter how many percent of shares and votes you and they had; and then the board has the rights to govern the corporation according to the corporate bylaws.

Re: Boards are dangerous to founder/CEOs

#60

Post by soperj »

option_greek wrote: post #54
rsweeney21 wrote: post #48

I always thought stuff like this happened to OTHER founders, but would never happen to me. But my board fired me six months after closing our series A. The advice in this article is 100% spot on. I didn't know any of this. I was totally focused on building my company. But if you raise money you can't do that anymore. 50% of your time will always be occupied with working on your next round of funding or managing your…

That's so sad but also super impressive. I'm not sure if you are ready to but may we know your current and previous startups.

Current start up is in their profile.
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