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How I feel quitting my own startup

aquiles.me

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Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#41

Post by mkl »

subarctic wrote: post #23
throwaway778 wrote: post #14

I’m struggling with making this decision at the moment and it was interesting to read this. I’m not a founder, but I’m the first hire and the first engineer – there since day 2. Six years in, a couple of pivots, and now we have a team of 100 people with a gigantic series A just closed and an excellent PMF. I built most of the product myself – it’s genuinely game-changing and commercial demand is through the roof. Eno…

I kind of hope you hold onto this throwaway account so you can tell us what you ultimately decide to do - from what you've said it sounds like the right course of action for you is to exercise your options to lock in your equity (assuming you have enough spare cash to do so) and move on, starting things off with a long vacation because you've been working crazy hours. Or you could start by just taking a long vacation…

https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=throwaway778:

  user:     throwaway778
  created:  December 31, 2013

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#42

Post by two_in_one »

robocat wrote: post #36
two_in_one wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as you have significant stock it probably doesn't matter much. Like for that engineer with 10% of Yahoo, or chief cook at Google. If you are ambitious, then you need an assistant to do what you are doing now. Better a small team under your leadership ;) The difficult part is to make them believe it.

> As long as you have significant stock Minority shareholding is actually pretty shitty, as I am sure a few people on this thread would agree.

Most of my savings came from minority stock. It was a nice surprise when I finally moved out. Could be better if I didn't sell it right away, but you never know...

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#43

Post by calmlynarczyk »

aledalgrande wrote: post #40
psyklic wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We had well-known lawyers from the beginning who deferred payment until we raised. The problem was that we delegated all legal to my business partner. When we traded the written equity split, he didn't disclose that he held (estimated) >80x more shares than what was listed next to his name.

How can people be so sketchy and still sleep at night is out of my mind

Psychopathy is a hell of a drug

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#44

Post by treprinum »

aqui_c wrote: post #2

I left the startup I co-founded 4+ years ago. The entire process was an emotional roller-coaster. My co-founders (and business partners), who are the majority shareholder, made it abundantly clear that the company was 'theirs'. They made decisions behind my back although I am the only founder working full time on the company. I felt alienated, undervalued, and frankly quite miserable for a while. At some point, when…

By leaving you gave your co-founders what they wanted and they probably celebrated that their nasty behavior led to the expected outcome. Sometimes it's worth fighting and not avoiding conflicts.

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#45

Post by DelightOne »

psyklic wrote: post #30
taberiand wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sounds like something that should have involved lawyers right from the "put in writing" stage.

We had well-known lawyers from the beginning who deferred payment until we raised. The problem was that we delegated all legal to my business partner. When we traded the written equity split, he didn't disclose that he held (estimated) >80x more shares than what was listed next to his name.

How can that happen and how do you avoid that happen without ones' own knowledge?

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#46

Post by princevegeta89 »

aqui_c wrote: post #2

I left the startup I co-founded 4+ years ago. The entire process was an emotional roller-coaster. My co-founders (and business partners), who are the majority shareholder, made it abundantly clear that the company was 'theirs'. They made decisions behind my back although I am the only founder working full time on the company. I felt alienated, undervalued, and frankly quite miserable for a while. At some point, when…

Sorry to hear. Reminds me of the "cofounder" that I had who wanted a sizeable equity but ended up bringing nothing technical or managerial to the table. The startup failed after 1 year, and we just wrapped everything up. I was secretly glad it failed.

It also reminds me to only work on startups with someone who you really know and trust, like a best friend.

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#47

Post by barelyauser »

princevegeta89 wrote: post #46
aqui_c wrote: post #2

I left the startup I co-founded 4+ years ago. The entire process was an emotional roller-coaster. My co-founders (and business partners), who are the majority shareholder, made it abundantly clear that the company was 'theirs'. They made decisions behind my back although I am the only founder working full time on the company. I felt alienated, undervalued, and frankly quite miserable for a while. At some point, when…

Sorry to hear. Reminds me of the "cofounder" that I had who wanted a sizeable equity but ended up bringing nothing technical or managerial to the table. The startup failed after 1 year, and we just wrapped everything up. I was secretly glad it failed. It also reminds me to only work on startups with someone who you really know and trust, like a best friend.

Great way to ruin a great friendship.

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#48

Post by ilamont »

neilv wrote: post #7
aqui_c wrote: post #2

I left the startup I co-founded 4+ years ago. The entire process was an emotional roller-coaster. My co-founders (and business partners), who are the majority shareholder, made it abundantly clear that the company was 'theirs'. They made decisions behind my back although I am the only founder working full time on the company. I felt alienated, undervalued, and frankly quite miserable for a while. At some point, when…

Based on this description, I had to double-check that you weren't a particular founder I know. FWIW, it's not just you; these seem to be non-rare things to happen. One can guess at the likelihood that egos, differing understandings/philosophies, or just plain greed are likely to become a showstopper problem. But, unless it's obvious that the showstopper problems are likely (some people telegraph warning signs heavily…

Cofounder conflict is one of the biggest untold stories of the startup world. Happens all the time, but no one wants to admit the scale of the problem or get into their own specifics.

Re: How I feel quitting my own startup

#49

Post by princevegeta89 »

barelyauser wrote: post #47
princevegeta89 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to hear. Reminds me of the "cofounder" that I had who wanted a sizeable equity but ended up bringing nothing technical or managerial to the table. The startup failed after 1 year, and we just wrapped everything up. I was secretly glad it failed. It also reminds me to only work on startups with someone who you really know and trust, like a best friend.

Great way to ruin a great friendship.

I don't necessarily agree with this statement - if I know my best friend inside out we will have a super large room for flexibility, and that often prevents conflicts.
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