San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
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Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#2[deleted]
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#3I wish Loic and his team the best of luck. It's never easy to lay friends and colleagues off, and I know that it's taken an emotional toll on Loic.
This is a reminder that even somebody of Loic's stature (he created LeWeb and is a very successful angel investor) can fail. Hard work, great product, good timing and luck -- you need them all to succeed.
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#4I'm all for failing quickly and pivoting into something better, but how does Loic Le Meur expect to attract future employees with such a track record?
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#5I'm all for failing quickly and pivoting into something better, but how does Loic Le Meur expect to attract future employees with such a track record?
With promises of mounds of equity and hoards of cash?
Startups are inherently risky. Loic made a very difficult decision (layoffs are hard). I am sure when he first hired those people it was in good faith. No one wants to fail.
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#6Start-up? Seesmic is five years old. They took $6 million in VC over four years ago.
They're an established company, not a start-up.
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#7I wish Loic and his team the best of luck. It's never easy to lay friends and colleagues off, and I know that it's taken an emotional toll on Loic. This is a reminder that even somebody of Loic's stature (he created LeWeb and is a very successful angel investor) can fail. Hard work, great product, good timing and luck -- you need them all to succeed.
Why so much sympathy for Loic, and not for people being laid off? Loic will be fine. He didn't burn his own cash, he burned VC and angel money. And given that he already has success track record, his reputation will not be damaged too much.
I hope those 18 guys were working for market salary, and not for some equity/options schema.
Otherwise, it's 18 more people that learned the hard way that it doesn't pay taking risks and salary sacrifice if your are not the one that makes decisions, and will avoid working for startups in the future.
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#8This is the 4th pivot for Seesmic? Can early investors ask for their money back if the nature of the business changes from what they originally invested in?
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#9This is the 4th pivot for Seesmic? Can early investors ask for their money back if the nature of the business changes from what they originally invested in?
Nope. That's part of the risk assumed by investors.
Plus "you can't get blood from a stone"---how much of that money exists that they could pull it out? And whose money is it exactly when you have multiple investors? At best they would only be entitled to a fraction of a fraction.
It would also set a bad precedent for companies they've invested in if startsup are not allowed to adapt because they'd lose funding, making it more likely that investments fail due to stagnation.
Re: San Francisco start-up Seesmic laid off 18 employees this week
#10This is the 4th pivot for Seesmic? Can early investors ask for their money back if the nature of the business changes from what they originally invested in?
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