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Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

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Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#371

Post by sudosysgen »

boredtofears wrote: post #164
Gigachad wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Clearly the situation is very different. Activision is much much bigger than Atari was. 4 of the top developers leaving wouldn't cause the company to implode.

The more I learn about game dev the less I think this is true. The number of programmers that can work on bleeding edge game engine tech is incredibly low and the learning curve has only gotten more severe over time. I mean, I'm sure they wouldn't implode, but I bet they pay their core engine devs a more than decent wage.

The majority of devs don't work on bleeding edge game engine tech, though.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#372

Post by eloisant »

squeaky-clean wrote: post #45
stavros wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know if it's less work , but certainly the assembly worker definitely delivers more value. Only one of the two killed the company.

That kind of demonstrates the importance and value of a good CEO though. A couple dumb decisions by an assembly worker won't kill a company. A few bad decisions by a CEO can.

Except the bad CEO still gets a big salary, and a golden parachute when he leaves the sinking ship of the company he killed. And then proceed to get hired as CEO for the next company.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#373

Post by swyx »

kube-system wrote: post #6
aninteger wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm curious if non-competes were a thing at this period of time. I'm not sure if something like this could happen today (although I'm sure it still happens).

Non-competes have been a thing for centuries, but California banned them in 1872.

which is awfully convenient that amzn and microsoft (and uber?) are based in washington state where this doesnt apply

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#375

Post by swyx »

pryelluw wrote: post #219
jamestimmins wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Now that the company is gone, have you considered using your experience to build a similar product in that space?

Yes, but it’s not what I want to do with my life. The journey is the destination.

i mean, 2m a year passive income, that sounds like a pretty good space to be in. it doesnt seem like you have any particular loyalty to it and its closed so... what was the business? you dont have to name it, im just curious economics-wise what let this business exist on autopilot

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#376

Post by fisf »

jollybean wrote: post #355
jasonwatkinspdx wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming abounds with stories like this. A friend of mine went to work for a small game studio in Oklahoma that'd gotten some acclaim for their quake mod pack. They took that momentum and started on their own novel IP as a quake licensee. They made a ahem mildly successful game named Medal of Honor. Some time down the road, the owner of the studio didn't want to share the wealth. As a result the top programmers, design…

Yeah this story has a problem. An entire company 'quits' and just 're-does the thing' is almost assuredly theft of know-now and IP, but more than that theft of the operating modality. It takes in incredible amount of work, risk, investment etc. to 'get something up and going' - with all of the parts working. Any time you walk into a company you'll see what looks like 'things working' on some level, usually that took…

> It takes in incredible amount of work, risk, investment etc. to 'get something up and going' - with all of the parts working.

So.. it's fair if the people who did all the hard work ask for some form of participation? If all it takes to duplicate a product is money and the people with know-how, than the capital is a rather marginal contribution?

And I am deliberately talking about know-how, and not IP here. You cannot apply copyright to the knowledge of your employees.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#377

Post by BurningFrog »

tomblomfield wrote: post #41

Famously, the Traitorous Eight left Shockley to found Fairchild Semiconductor. This was essentially the origin story of Silicon Valley. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traitorous_eight https://www.amazon.co.uk/Power-Law-Venture-Capital-Disruptio...

Did Shockley die though?

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#378

Post by [deleted] »

zomgbbq wrote: post #25

Atari in 1983 went from the leader in video game production to completely imploding. In 1979, four of their best programmers left after demanding equity in the sales and were refused. Their CEO Ray Kassar famously said, "You’re no more important to those projects than the person on the assembly line who put them together. You’re a dime a dozen. You’re not unique. Anybody can do ­a ­cartridge.". They left and formed A…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#379

Post by joyfylbanana »

MikePlacid wrote: post #256
senko wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Their CEO Ray Kassar famously said, "You’re no more important to those projects than the person on the assembly line who put them together. You’re a dime a dozen. You’re not unique. Anybody can do ­a ­cartridge.". Imagine any software company CEO nowadays saying that out loud, no matter what they privately thought.

> Imagine any software company CEO nowadays saying that out loud, no matter what they privately thought. A daughter of my friend was not very happy in her job: a Silicon Valley company hired her as a security pro, but was using as a coder, which she hates. She was going to leave, but decided to wait ten months or so until her stock options vested. She and a big group of other engineers were fired right before the ves…

> All this time the CEO was generating absolutely politically correct sounds: people are our best capital, diversity is our strength, etc. She would be better off if he was honest.

Honestly rarely pays and is also unthankful. There is only a little benefit and lots of downsides, such as people getting seriously pissed at you. It is not a wonder that corporate leadership roles are filled up with people who see no problem of talking bullshit all day.

Re: Ask HN: What are examples of companies dying due to many people quitting?

#380

Post by nashashmi »

swyx wrote: post #370
PragmaticPulp wrote: post #63

I worked for a company big enough to be in the HN headlines (sorry, have to stay somewhat anonymous) where development virtually stalled for a couple years after a mass exodus event. The CEO went on a rampage and fired some people on the spot for something they weren’t even responsible for, which destroyed the already fragile morale and created a steady exodus of good talent over a couple of years. It didn’t kill the…

i havent actually done this but just pointing out that with 55k HN karma and 7 years of HN comments, you're pseudonymous at best :) maybe if youre far enough from the company i'd give it like 5 years statute of limitations before you can start naming and shaming?

Zynga?
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