Email to Former Board Member • Hacker News Board

Re: Email to Former Board Member

#21

Post by auggierose » Sat, Oct 17, 2020, 11:58 PM UTC

gkoberger wrote: post #5

Here's the context, from the author: "Simultaneously, we were forced to deal with a board member who was beyond counterproductive. After we bought him out fully in 2019, I sent this feedback email detailing the ways in which he had disrupted our board and company. Dealing with this issue was one of the loneliest times I faced as a CEO. To be clear, this email is unlike anything I’ve sent in my life, and I’ve thought…

> As far back as college, I’ve made hard decisions with the goal of building a great family. That emphasis has impacted everything from which jobs I’ve pursued to what foods I’ve eaten — even before I was married.

That doesn't sound healthy to me.

Re: Email to Former Board Member

#22

Post by cavisne » Sun, Oct 18, 2020, 12:00 AM UTC

The email is funny but this company raises some red flags for me. Firstly I couldn’t figure out what CircleUp actually does as a “tech startup” from reading their website.

On further reading they used to do something (a marketplace to connect investors and consumer companies needing funding) but they pivoted into being a plain old investment company (ie what the founders used to do themselves).

They make some very dubious claims about using machine learning, what huge dataset are they pulling from when the pool of companies is tiny and their marketplace doesn’t exist anymore?

How is a VC meant to get VC returns from a company that is itself simply raising money and investing it in early stage companies.

This feels like clever self marketing (tech founder vs financiers!) when really it’s a pissing match between VCs

Re: Email to Former Board Member

#23

Post by krick » Sun, Oct 18, 2020, 12:12 AM UTC

mark-ruwt wrote: post #4

For those wanting/needing context: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24793170

> If you have gotten this far and think this is a self-indulgent pity party, please just stop reading.

I don't judge (actually I feel for this guy), but let's be honest: isn't it? And this email just reinforces the idea. In fact, as all this stuff I've just read settles in my mind, empathy starts to give place to the feeling all of this is kind of... petty?

Re: Email to Former Board Member

#24

Post by kyleee » Sun, Oct 18, 2020, 2:42 AM UTC

auggierose wrote: post #21

gkoberger wrote: post #5

Here's the context, from the author: "Simultaneously, we were forced to deal with a board member who was beyond counterproductive. After we bought him out fully in 2019, I sent this feedback email detailing the ways in which he had disrupted our board and company. Dealing with this issue was one of the loneliest times I faced as a CEO. To be clear, this email is unlike anything I’ve sent in my life, and I’ve thought…

> As far back as college, I’ve made hard decisions with the goal of building a great family. That emphasis has impacted everything from which jobs I’ve pursued to what foods I’ve eaten — even before I was married. That doesn't sound healthy to me.

Why?