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!
If you’re going to fail hard and learn it from it, you could do worse than these experiences. If you’re at a startup, you’re either there for the economic opportunity of being on a rocket ship (equity lottery ticket), learning how to be a founder (because you might want to found your own startup), or learning how to do what your role is because you don’t have enough experience to be hired elsewhere (imho).
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)
The tactlessness is just awful. I would consider deleting that post.
But you forgot to say a few things in your post:
Hey everyone, I made an expensive move and changed my life for a job, and it didn't work out. In fact, I got fired. If anyone is looking for someone with experience in X Y and Z, I'm your guy.
Reading the title, I thought the company did something horrible to you, but I must have missed it from the text.
(The biggest crime I see in this text though is the inconsistent capitalization in sf)
andytratt•1h ago
andytratt•58m ago
ElProlactin•50m 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.