Comment by tristor
2 years ago
> 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).