Comment by tristor
2 years ago
I joined a YC startup from an HN post, which was in some ways a great experience, and in other ways was terrible. A real mixed bag.
I still keep in touch with some of the people I worked with there and it was honestly some of the best quality people I've ever been on a team with, unfortunately the founder decided to shark everyone technical at the company after we hit a major milestone early letting go the CTO and everyone on my team, including me, and at the time I was traveling (with the company's encouragement). They stranded me in a foreign country with no severance and no working technology (no phone/laptop). I eventually sorted things out with them, and I hope they continue to succeed as I have no hard feelings, but it was definitely one of my wilder startup experiences. Just to clarify, it was definitely an issue of incompetence, not of being malicious, they had no formal HR function and just really handled things badly out of ignorance rather than a desire to cause me harm.
The experience was actually key to why I decided to stop being an engineer and become a product manager instead, so in that way it was a massively necessary moment in my career to get to where I am today. That said, I'm not sure if I'd repeat the entire experience.
I'm glad you survived, but I'm having trouble imagining how this was only "incompetence".
Could the company not make another payroll, no option other than to spin it down? So the incompetence was first in getting that close, and second in executing the spindown?
Or did the business keep going, or did some people walk away more comfortably?
> I'm glad you survived, but I'm having trouble imagining how this was only "incompetence".
The business kept going and is still operating. Why it was incompetence is because they had no formal HR function or Legal function at the company at that time, and so just mishandled things because they didn't know what they were doing from an HR/Legal perspective. I believe this has since been resolved. I don't want to go into more details, but as one of the harmed parties, I am satisfied it was not malicious and merely an oversight due to ignorance.
I'm not comfortable with a startup laying off people at all. Startup compensation is almost always structured with equity as a part.
And the details are usually crappy, like even a very early critical engineering hire offereed only 1% ISOs, vesting over 4+ years, and a 90-day window to exercise upon severing employment.
When the company structures terms like that, for people who you'd think the company would want aligned with the success of the company, a company that's enjoyed the work towards equity of employees should make layoffs a last resort, including after having the founders take the hit (e.g., trading some of their much larger equity for funds to retain their team).