Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup • Hacker News Board

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#421

Post by mrmarquo » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:22 AM UTC

normandy04 wrote: post #420

mrmarquo wrote: post #418

I don't think that anyone with such a low IQ would be able to even incorporate the company not to hire people. There are many inconsistencies in the article (related to visas & investors) and characters seem unlikely to exist. The author did a great job of shaping and creating the story in order to attract attention. What actually happened: Penny Kim created "the company", "founders", "employees", "website", etc. App…

except: https://medium.com/@dtunkelang/lesson-learned-ab0dc6723b8c#....

Daniel on his Facebook page says to "help the victim" and he attached a link where she's asking for a job: https://www.facebook.com/dtunkelang/posts/10101152283865739?...

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#422

Post by mrmarquo » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:37 AM UTC

mrmarquo wrote: post #421

normandy04 wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

except: https://medium.com/@dtunkelang/lesson-learned-ab0dc6723b8c#....

Daniel on his Facebook page says to "help the victim" and he attached a link where she's asking for a job: https://www.facebook.com/dtunkelang/posts/10101152283865739?...

Seems so unreal.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#423

Post by MichaelBurge » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:39 AM UTC

amusedreading wrote: post #402

lol, WrkRiot just posted this response https://www.facebook.com/WrkRiot/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf WrkRiot is considering legal action against a disgruntled former employee who has launched a slanderous campaign against WrkRiot and some of its employees via social media. While it is not our policy to discuss personnel matters, we want to make it clear that this former employee was fired for cause. Signed affidavits from…

Elsewhere in this thread, they already claimed that nobody in their company matches the description in the article, so case closed.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#424

Post by ryuker16 » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:43 AM UTC

FT_intern wrote: post #417

amusedreading wrote: post #402

lol, WrkRiot just posted this response https://www.facebook.com/WrkRiot/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf WrkRiot is considering legal action against a disgruntled former employee who has launched a slanderous campaign against WrkRiot and some of its employees via social media. While it is not our policy to discuss personnel matters, we want to make it clear that this former employee was fired for cause. Signed affidavits from…

At the same time, Penny is not the brightest bulb in the world. I don't see what she gains from exposing the company. The downside is huge from the potential lawsuits and virility of the post unless she plans to somehow monetize the audience. I guess she could start a gofundme to pay for legal fees

Her post used aliases and didnt name specifics....they cant legally do anything becuase others played detective and figured out who was being slandered.

As a marketer this is brilliant since its good exposure. Plus the shame means she probaly will get paidor at least score payback.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#425

Post by chenster » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:43 AM UTC

lemonghost wrote: post #12

mgkimsal wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

jobsonic.com = expired squarespace site...

On crunchbase they are now wrkriot: http://www.wrkriot.com/team-1/

The page now requires a password. The page cached by Google: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:cMRXCID...

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#426

Post by ryuker16 » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 1:56 AM UTC

albertcbrown wrote: post #297

This is Charlie. I met the CEO (not sharing his name, though it is in this thread) through his brother in law, Jay. Jay worked with me at a prior company. He was a data scientist and factual. He mentioned his brother in law came to Silicon Valley to do a startup having made some money as an investment banker. As we talked, the CEO stated he is putting in $2M to fund the startup in November. In December, with $400k or…

ceo is probaly a con man or an idiot rich guy who inherited his money. Do a background check on him or search his name to see if any crimes come up.

Chances are VERY high he kept your $200k. He will be the only one on that burning plane ride with a financial parachute....

I suggest suing him or threatening criminal charges. he might magically find the lost payroll money and reimburse you....poor h-1b visa dudes will get jack shit.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#427

Post by ryuker16 » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 2:03 AM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #117

jboggan wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This stood out as well. I'd wager that those 9 Chinese employees might be misled about their legal status.

Wouldn't that get caught at the airport? I mean, when someone arrives and says they have an H1B visa, USCIS does check, right? Now, given everything else here I wouldn't be surprised if there was fraud involved in getting the H1B visas issued, but that's separate from the question of whether people who think they have H1B visas actually have H1B visas.

They lie at airport and claim theyre tourists.

i bet the ceo told them that the papers were still being processed and to get to work....ironically since he never paid them, he might be legally off the hook for immigration violations.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#428

Post by godzillabrennus » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 2:31 AM UTC

This is becoming better than an episode of Silicon Valley on HBO. I hope they release a video statement countering the claim where you can clearly see they have coke out on the table.

The CEO of this "company" is basically Russ Hanneman without the money. Instead a boat load of debt.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#429

Post by chenster » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 2:44 AM UTC

SakiWatanabe wrote: post #31

>Michael said under his breath in our second language, “Look at those Chinese kids. They’re pretty happy they got paid, huh?” Kim (the writer) is a korean last name, is the company CEO korean too?

Choi, Park, Kim are all common Korean last name. Some Chinese also has Choi last name.

Re: Scammed By A Silicon Valley Startup

#430

Post by ef4 » Tue, Aug 30, 2016, 3:16 AM UTC

erikb wrote: post #354

ef4 wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's pretty much a rite of passage here... most people have or will That's pretty silly. Plenty of people working in startups never put themselves through that kind of BS. There are at last two obvious strategies for avoiding the whole problem: (1) be a founder, (2) work in a more established tech company until you have the experience, personal network, and finances to intelligent pick a startup to work for.

You think as founder you don't have to deal with that? Oh boy, you're in for quite a few surprises. And how do you learn about how to handle this if you work at more established companies? It's the kind of thing we all already know of because of tv shows like game of thrones. But experiencing and actually handling it is another topic.

A psychopathic peer is not the same thing as a psychopathic boss.

If you're doing your job, you know how much money is in the bank and you know what the value proposition of the business is, so the failure modes described in the article don't apply.

I'm not saying a slipper cofounder can't also try to cheat you, but they have a lot less room to maneuver when you're not a subordinate.