At the size of COIN, a company does not equal the CEO + a few execs, but it's a machine in its own.
Ignoring feedback is not the most wise.
The feedback is not "the company did this list of bad things" but rather "the employees are unhappy, unmotivated, to the point that they complain in public"
Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
351–360 of 488 posts
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#352Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'd love to read about this. Do you have anything I can read on the history of Solaris and its development?
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20815603 Unfortunately Sun won the System-V vs BSD "Unix wars", and then uni(x)laterally capitulated to AT&T. The Day SunOS Died "Bye, bye, SunOS 4.1.3! ATT System V has replaced BSD. You can cling to the standards of the industry But only if you pay the right fee -- Only if you pay the right fee . . ." http://www.poppyfields.net/filks/00070.html For context, the guy who wrote "Th…
Wow, crazy long comment. I'm gonna read through all of this now. Thank you!
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#353Earlier quoted context omitted.
Brian, you have legitimate points. Here are my edits to your tweets to help people receive them better (i've tried to not change the message, just the tone): """ I’m deeply troubled by this, but not for the reasons you might imagine: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31690452 2/ First of all, if you want to do a vote of no confidence, you should do it on me and not blame the execs. I was a little offended not to b…
>Brian, you have legitimate points. Here are my edits to your tweets to help people receive them better (i've tried to not change the message, just the tone): >5/ Fourth, our culture is to retaliate against whistleblowers. Instead of negotiating with you, if you get caught you will be fired. That's just terrible advice - whistleblower retaliation is illegal, and you're suggesting he retaliate publicly? I'd argue that…
I’m not suggesting it. I’m merely clarifying what he wrote. Did I misunderstand what he’d written in his tweet?
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#354Earlier quoted context omitted.
What you’re describing is already standard practice. You have to shuffle option pools as you hire more people and raise more money.
No, when I was hired as a 1st engineer at a startup, I was given 2.5% of the shares. When we hired the next 10 people, the value/% of my shares did not get affected. So, I in a way I, as an IC with 2.5% of shares could push to hire more people to do more of the work I did without any negative direct impact to me (I know the impact comes as the company spends more money, has to raise more and then dilute the value of…
> When we hired the next 10 people, the value/% of my shares did not get affected.
Where did the new hires' shares come from, if not dilution?
They might have come from an option pool, but that just adds a layer of indirection. When the option pool runs low, typically it is replenished with new shares, diluting existing ones.
So I think the dynamic you're describing already exists in most startups.
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#355TBH reading the reply it looks like Brian needs a vacation.
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#356Good to know that you don’t really need much intelligence to be a founder/CEO of a unicorn company, just luck and a ton of unearned confidence.
Sure the initial petition is somewhat dumb but the fact that the CEO is so proud of his response is comical levels of dumb. Cringed hard at the revelation of how dumb this guy is. Sometimes the best response is no response.
The most generous way I can view this is that this guy is trying to copy Elon Musk in a contrived manner. Just shows a lack of original thinking.
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#357TBH reading the reply it looks like Brian needs a vacation.
Honestly it makes me feel a bit bad for him. He got lucky and everyone thinks he’s smart but he’s just coping by trying his best to copy others and lacks the ability to think clearly.
From copying Ray Dalio’s Corp practices blindly to copying Elon’s “unfiltered” tweet style, this guy is revealing his weaknesses. Doubt a vacation would cure that.
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#358Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#359Responded here https://twitter.com/brian_armstrong/status/15353049437284147...
“If you're unhappy about something, work as part of the team to raise it along with proposed solutions (it's easy to be a critic, harder to be a part of the solution). If you can't do that and you're going to leak/rant externally then quit. Thanks!”
The amount of blatant hypocrisy in this tweet is mindblowing. If I knew I wasn’t smart enough to run a company I’d at the very least get someone to proofread my tweets before exposing my lack of logical consistency and awareness.
This whole leak/rant is something that should have been addressed internally. Shot in the foot.
Re: Coinbase employees petition to remove execs
#360Earlier quoted context omitted.
That's fair. I guess I'm just frustrated at these "tech writers" for re-posting unverified information from Blind and then needing to walk it back later. It's unprofessional and risky.
Too bad Mr. Armstrong didn't choose to keep his mouth shut for a bit longer, to verify if the claims were from actual employees. Alternatively, he could have made a single tweet: "I am aware of the open letter published today that was claimed to be from Coinbase empoyees. We will do our best to verify this and also respond to those employees internally to try and solve any issues they have with the direction of our c…
Spot on. Shocking that the bar for CEO of a public company is so hilariously low.