I worked at a startup that offered to triple my equity if I stayed a full four years, a special offer to me for seven months of excellent performance. Four months later, growth below projections, they laid me off 19 days before my 1 year cliff. 3/9ths of the engineering team, gone.
The lesson I’ve learned is to never, ever, put long hours into a startup you don’t own. Ever.
Equity is a carrot that you usually never get, like the donkey you just keep chasing it.
The thing is even if you 'have' the equity share as an employee, you might never get liquidity. And (super obviously) most startups fail.
So even if you have a decent chunk of 'ownership', you really, _really_ need to believe in it to be working those hours. I'm talking the kind of belief built on your specialist and insider knowledge about why it's very likely to crush everything else. And even then you can get screwed!
OP strikes me as quite childish. I’m guessing he’s quite young, nothing wrong with that.
And yeah, the circumstances aren’t great (the stressful move to SF in particular). Tough break!
I mean, I just don't get it. There doesn't seem to be a purpose, and no ostensible benefit to be had.
is it that you need a new job and this is the hook? or do you have some insight into better ways of being letgo/fired/parted ways with?
its also not clear how long you were there for? (i'm not in the business of stalking people on linkedin)
andytratt•18m ago
andytratt•10m ago
ElProlactin•2m ago
You even publicly posted your Separation Agreement, which contains a confidentiality clause in which you "agree[d] to maintain in complete confidence the existence of this Agreement."
It hurts to be let go and in these economic times, it can be scary. But this post is actually doing the opposite of what you want it to.