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StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

forbes.com

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Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#231

Post by qingcharles »

rationalist wrote: post #142
qingcharles wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was once really broke and sold my 50% share in a startup I'd built for, IIRC, £500. In retrospect, perhaps I came out the winner? This was it: https://dudefactory.com/ I went on to turn that £500 into approx $13.5m: https://torrentfreak.com/major-tv-torrent-site-thebox-bz-cal...

How do you make that much money as a private torrent tracker, advertising? (Obligatory congrats) Edit: and was running that site related to why you went to jail?

Folks would pay to bump their ratio so they could download more. Site was not related to my jail spell.

(also all the money is long gone, First Wife has what's left of it, I am broke once again lol)

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#232

Post by qingcharles »

cactusplant7374 wrote: post #220
qingcharles wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was once really broke and sold my 50% share in a startup I'd built for, IIRC, £500. In retrospect, perhaps I came out the winner? This was it: https://dudefactory.com/ I went on to turn that £500 into approx $13.5m: https://torrentfreak.com/major-tv-torrent-site-thebox-bz-cal...

The box was my favorite torrent site back in the day but the seeding requirements were a little insane especially when there was no one that wanted the same content.

Yeah, it was a bitch when you wanted some totally random show that no-one wanted. You could get yourself in a horrible ratio hole. I guess that's why we made so much money from people buying themselves out of holes.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#233

Post by vaxman »

The founder of DataTree (bought by NYSE:FAF) did something similar and got away with it bc coming forward would have wrecked all the mom n pops as the acquisition fell thru. Of course, the mom n pops turned into nasty bitches as soon as they received their wires, but…

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#234

Post by csallen »

adastra22 wrote: post #135
csallen wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's wrong with it? If people want to be allowed to buy/sell second-class shares that don't have voting rights, then I don't see the problem with there being a market for that.

It’s not a free market. Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. Therefore it can be aggressively abused to disenfranchise public shareholders who have no say in the creation of share classes in the first place. One important role of government is to set and maintain standards for listing on markets, so that customers are protected. An example of such a rule…

It is a free market though? Sellers in a free market are free to sell what they choose, which includes not selling things they don't want to sell. If the government were to step in and _force_ public companies to sell stock they don't want to sell, that would be the opposite of a free market, by every definition I've heard of.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#235

Post by adastra22 »

i_am_jl wrote: post #219
adastra22 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a free market. Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. Therefore it can be aggressively abused to disenfranchise public shareholders who have no say in the creation of share classes in the first place. One important role of government is to set and maintain standards for listing on markets, so that customers are protected. An example of such a rule…

> It’s not a free market. >Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. Respectfully, I think you're confused about what a "free market" is. What you're describing, where market participants can compel the sale of a firm's assets, is antithetical to a free market.

I am suffering no confusion.

Free market: “voluntary exchange and the laws of supply and demand provide the sole basis for the economic system.”

It’s voluntary exchange, yes, but it is not a driven by supply and demand. In the same way that the 1970’s oil market driven by the OPEC cartel was not a free market either. If you don’t like the control that Zuck has, can you express that dislike by buying shares of Meta that don’t include unequal voting rights? You can’t, because this is an issuer controlled market.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#236

Post by adastra22 »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #190
adastra22 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a free market. Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. Therefore it can be aggressively abused to disenfranchise public shareholders who have no say in the creation of share classes in the first place. One important role of government is to set and maintain standards for listing on markets, so that customers are protected. An example of such a rule…

>It’s not a free market. Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. this is a pretty expansive definition of freedom, the freedom to buy unfettered options in a company.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#237

Post by adastra22 »

csallen wrote: post #234
adastra22 wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s not a free market. Your options are buy the class of stocks that the company wishes to sell, or not participate at all. Therefore it can be aggressively abused to disenfranchise public shareholders who have no say in the creation of share classes in the first place. One important role of government is to set and maintain standards for listing on markets, so that customers are protected. An example of such a rule…

It is a free market though? Sellers in a free market are free to sell what they choose, which includes not selling things they don't want to sell. If the government were to step in and _force_ public companies to sell stock they don't want to sell, that would be the opposite of a free market, by every definition I've heard of.

I don’t know what that has to do with what I wrote. Nowhere did I argue for anything remotely resembling that.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#238

Post by cactusplant7374 »

qingcharles wrote: post #232
cactusplant7374 wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The box was my favorite torrent site back in the day but the seeding requirements were a little insane especially when there was no one that wanted the same content.

Yeah, it was a bitch when you wanted some totally random show that no-one wanted. You could get yourself in a horrible ratio hole. I guess that's why we made so much money from people buying themselves out of holes.

That's funny. I didn't know you could buy credits.

Re: StabilityAI cofounder says CEO tricked him into selling stake for $100

#239

Post by csallen »

adastra22 wrote: post #237
csallen wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a free market though? Sellers in a free market are free to sell what they choose, which includes not selling things they don't want to sell. If the government were to step in and _force_ public companies to sell stock they don't want to sell, that would be the opposite of a free market, by every definition I've heard of.

I don’t know what that has to do with what I wrote. Nowhere did I argue for anything remotely resembling that.

> One important role of government is to set and maintain standards for listing on markets, so that customers are protected. An example of such a rule would be that all publicly traded companies have equal voting rights across all share classes: one share, one vote.

That is exactly what you argued for. Your rule would force public companies to offer up for sale shares with equal voting rights, whereas today many do not want to do so.

I'm not saying it's bad. Perhaps it's a good rule. It's just that you said you want a free market, and then proposed rules that in fact detract from a free market.

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