What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies • Hacker News Board

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#11

Post by kornish » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 3:53 PM UTC

quaunaut wrote: post #10

This is a remarkably well-written article. Made me really feel for the company, both in terms of sympathy and wanting to see them succeed. One thing it did left me wondering, was covered in the final paragraph: "...Engineers can spot his name and edits throughout the code repository. And occasionally, back-end commands will pop up messages, little surprises that Tang built into the system years ago. One reads, “You’r…

At my company, each of our API responses sends a randomly selected compliment in an HTTP header. When we're onboarding new engineers, everybody's first commit to the codebase is adding a compliment to the list.

Nobody's noticed yet because the API is currently consumed only by us, but maybe they will someday. :)

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#12

Post by quaunaut » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 3:54 PM UTC

kornish wrote: post #11

quaunaut wrote: post #10

This is a remarkably well-written article. Made me really feel for the company, both in terms of sympathy and wanting to see them succeed. One thing it did left me wondering, was covered in the final paragraph: "...Engineers can spot his name and edits throughout the code repository. And occasionally, back-end commands will pop up messages, little surprises that Tang built into the system years ago. One reads, “You’r…

At my company, each of our API responses sends a randomly selected compliment in an HTTP header. When we're onboarding new engineers, everybody's first commit to the codebase is adding a compliment to the list. Nobody's noticed yet because the API is currently consumed only by us, but maybe they will someday. :)

I like that approach. Might I ask what the header is? HTTP-COMPLIMENT or somesuch?

It could be a fun 'standard'.

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#13

Post by rokhayakebe » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 4:05 PM UTC

What of his equity?

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#14

Post by fnbr » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 4:34 PM UTC

rokhayakebe wrote: post #13

What of his equity?

Presumably it's now owned by his estate, like the rest of his assets.

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#15

Post by benatkin » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 5:20 PM UTC

fnbr wrote: post #14

rokhayakebe wrote: post #13

What of his equity?

Presumably it's now owned by his estate, like the rest of his assets.

He probably had a vesting schedule. So it may not be all that large of a chunk of equity.

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#16

Post by kornish » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 5:43 PM UTC

quaunaut wrote: post #12

kornish wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my company, each of our API responses sends a randomly selected compliment in an HTTP header. When we're onboarding new engineers, everybody's first commit to the codebase is adding a compliment to the list. Nobody's noticed yet because the API is currently consumed only by us, but maybe they will someday. :)

I like that approach. Might I ask what the header is? HTTP-COMPLIMENT or somesuch? It could be a fun 'standard'.

We prefix all our custom headers with `X-Ark-` (for auth tokens, request IDs for logging and such), so in this case it's `X-Ark-Compliment`.

Also, another thing we do to propagate joy in engineering culture is make heavy use of Phabricator macros in the code review process. It adds a lot of humor to the situation to have somebody draw attention to a bug in your code by pointing it out with an epic skateboard accident: http://giphy.com/gifs/fail-SMwheKIMDwA00

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#17

Post by nolepointer » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 5:44 PM UTC

sneak wrote: post #2

It's really unprofessional of Forbes to misquote their main source of content for the article (he did not say "mindf dash dash k".)

He did not say "mindf dash dash k." He said "mindf em dash k."

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#18

Post by mooreds » Fri, Jun 26, 2015, 7:18 PM UTC

meelooo wrote: post #6

mooreds wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like a great idea. However, not sure how much money would help in this situation.

Money can help get through the time you need to get back on your knees. I've had the misfortune of having my cofounder die after 18 month and two investments rounds and some money would have really help. Also you have to prepare for this kind of problems in advance because all of a sudden a substantial part of the shares of the company will be in limbo until the legalities are handled (and it can really stink if the…

All good points. Thanks.

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#19

Post by yellowapple » Sat, Jun 27, 2015, 1:28 AM UTC

> This is a haiku / To ask you, please turn off your / ad blocker. Love, Forbes

Here's a better one: / I use ad blockers because / your ads annoy me.

Re: What Happens to a Startup When a Cofounder Dies

#20

Post by __z » Sun, Jun 28, 2015, 4:40 PM UTC

marketer wrote: post #9

warpzero wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... but Diet Coke doesn't have sugar in it, so it shouldn't cause cavities, right? Did a joke just go over my head or am I missing something?

Diet coke has phosphoric acid which causes erosion of the enamel.

It's not the phosphoric acid, its the carbonation. Plain old carbonated water is acidic as well which can erode the teeth. That being said your saliva can repair the teeth. The current wisdom is don't drink solely acidic drinks and wait between acidic food/drink and teeth brushing.