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Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

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Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#391

Post by melindajb »

GuiA wrote: post #14

Welcome to the club. It's pretty much a rite of passage here to spend some time with a psychopath VC, a completely self absorbed CTO with a rich investor dad that fuels his fantasies, or an idiotic CEO with an ego problem, and to pay the price for it (just time if you're lucky, time+money if you're not). I've encountered this myself several times (down to the CEO using hire fast fire fast as a mantra), and judging fr…

and yet silicon valley says it's impossible that discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, race, and age isn't happening. Not you, per se, just in general everyone believes the scam but the rest is "just a matter of opinion."

As for me I am entirely unsurprised because I've literally seen it all. and it happens more often than most people realize. the more desperate you are to be here, the more people will take advantage of you.

It's very similar to the way young girls who want to be actresses or models get "discovered" by pornographers.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#392

Post by blackflame7000 »

ChristopherE wrote: post #368
ramblenode wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, the author's description "anti-SEO name" doesn't quite do these justice. "1for.one" is cringey but "wrkriot.com" is just straight VC repellent.

Not disputing you, but why is WrkRiot so repellent? It's unique and recognizable. I'll admit that "Riot" is just weird, but is that the main reason? (not trolling, I'm serious)

Because misspelling your name, while quirky, doesn't exactly express professionalism.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#393

Post by melindajb »

liquidise wrote: post #50

I found the bit about the negotiated salary of particular note. I have never included severance in my negotiations, mostly because i have always left my jobs willingly. Is that something more common than i know of? What is a reasonable target to aim for?

depends on the level. with Execs you get a double trigger if you're let go after a liquidity event (essentially all your stock vests so you don't get shafted.

Young people rarely if ever have the leverage to negotiate severance, but If you can, I'd say 2 months at a minimum plus 1 month for each year. Chances are that in a small startup the reason you get nothing is that they go out of business. And if you're a marketer, doubly so.

As I always say, engineers get aqui-hired. And marketers get acqui-fired.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#394

Post by ahartman00 »

erikb wrote: post #374
Theodores wrote: post #335

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> a psychopath VC, a completely self absorbed CTO with a rich investor dad that fuels his fantasies, or an idiotic CEO with an ego problem, and to pay the price for it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluster_B_personality_disorder... For some reason we are not educated about this. We learn it the hard way by being taken in with what seems a good opportunity, then getting abused and then going our own way. We naively be…

It's really infuriating how few people will believe you and follow up on the 'tells'. Even people who must have experienced that before. The only reason I can think of for that behavior is an inate hope that other people are reasonable.

and good old fashioned "it cant/wont happen to me"

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#395

Post by pauljaworski »

mikeryan wrote: post #307

I think that story is about another startup called Vingle. Vingle ( https://www.vingle.net/ ) Looks like Tess has been attaching herself to some bombs.

To be honest, she doesn't seem very talented, so she's just taking whatever she can get. In one of her personal blog posts, she said that she applied to 200 companies and got 3 responses - one of which was WrkRiot.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#396

Post by dragonwriter »

foxylad wrote: post #80

> The names have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty. Assuming the writer is as scrupulously honest as they seem to be, how legally exposed would they be in actually naming names? And assuming they are exposed, are astute commenters who use clues from the article to reveal the company also liable? It seems to me that it would be a HUGE public good to name the names. Employees and investors absolutely need…

> Assuming the writer is as scrupulously honest as they seem to be, how legally exposed would they be in actually naming names?

Anyone involved who wanted to claim that the negative portrayals (of which there are plenty) were false and caused economic harm -- both individuals and the company as a company -- could file libel claims for the damages caused. Even if no liability was actually found in the end, the cost of fighting the lawsuits could be significant.

> And assuming they are exposed, are astute commenters who use clues from the article to reveal the company also liable?

Its harder to see liability there, though its not impossible that someone could try to make a case.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#397

Post by dragonwriter »

readitmeow wrote: post #89
pyre wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They might open themselves up to lawsuits. Even if they will win the lawsuits, that's a money/time sink to deal with.

Is it still libel or defamation if it's all true?

> Is it still libel or defamation if it's all true?

No, but that's part of what would be at issue in a lawsuit.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#398

Post by dragonwriter »

gozur88 wrote: post #3

If I'm understanding the article correctly this goes beyond not getting paid because the CEO is juggling accounts - the Wells Fargo thing is probably criminal.

The "not getting paid on time" thing is, by itself, criminal in California.

See California Labor Code Secs. 204 & 215.

http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xh....

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#400

Post by lightspender »

TheActuallyer wrote: post #267
Animats wrote: post #105

The fake wire transfer receipt is fraud. That's a criminal offense. Have a talk with the local DA. California has a large prison system, with cell space available. I've never heard of a startup going that far.

+1 . Talk to DA. I wonder if there is any lawyer who would do pro bono

Start with speaking to SFPD special investigations. Find out at how many levels the fraud can be reported (federal, state, etc). Use the report as documentation to protect from any further actions that come down the pike financially.
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