Ask YC: Ethical Question, possible fraud

Post by ScottWhigham » Sun, Jun 29, 2008, 6:41 PM UTC

huhtenberg wrote: post #26

> What would you do if faced with this situation? In short, your options are: * confront the founder * get vocal outside of the company (customers, investors, etc) * quit * keep your concerns to yourself and continue working I would strongly advise against first two options. They will automatically tag you as a troublemaker, and depending on the size of your professional circle this may cause you substantial problems…

Excellent analysis. I would add a 5th option (and not that I'm recommending it; just that it should be there as well):

   * "Drink the kool-aid" (i.e. buy into what the company believes/touts)

I think another saying is, "Fake it till you make it." It sounds like this is an aphorism the founder buys into. He isn't the first founder to use this strategy and, without saying it's right or wrong, I would just suggest you look around and take stock of just how bad your founder actually is versus the next founder/company you will go to work for if you do number's 1, 2, or 3.

Re: Ask YC: Ethical Question, possible fraud

Re: Ask YC: Ethical Question, possible fraud