5 ms·
Founder is so far from employee it's ridiculous you even comment. It's sad that most founders don't care or don't understand that sometimes they managed to hir
by ldehaan 11y ago
Founder is so far from employee it's ridiculous you even comment.
It's sad that most founders don't care or don't understand that sometimes they managed to hire people that actually care about the business, and could have helped make it better.
When I see a founder sell his business, all I ever think is (as I'm sure most do), what a selfish asshole.
- dev360 11y agoA cash out to one of the big four must be exhilarating. Even if it wouldn't be your definition of success as founder, imagine the pressure from your own investors who invested in you exactly for this type of outcome.
- realkitkat 11y agoThis. But then again, when you join a VC funded start-up, end game should be pretty obvious.
- dquail 11y agoFair enough. I missed the part where this is an employees perspective. WRT being selfish. It's often the last thing a founder wants. Boards, family members, and even sometimes employees - often pressure a founder into an acquisition the founder themselves isn't as keen on.
- radley 11y ago> When I see a founder sell his business, all I ever think is (as I'm sure most do), what a selfish asshole. You must be new here. Some useful info: http://ycombinator.com http://ycombinator.com https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- chris_wot 11y agoI've been here a long time, and I frequently think the same thing.
- radley 11y agoIt's not uncommon for founders to sell their company. Even Paul Graham (who created Hacker News) has done it: In 1996, Graham and Robert Morris founded Viaweb, the first application service provider (ASP). Viaweb's software, originally written mostly in Common Lisp, allowed users to make their own Internet stores. In the summer of 1998 Viaweb was sold to Yahoo! for 455,000 shares of Yahoo! stock, valued at $49.6 million. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_programmer%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Graham_%28computer_progra...
- ArkyBeagle 11y agoEvery time you take a job, have a plan for the end game. Plans are worthless but planning is everything. If you don't, you have just said "but this time it's different."
- shostack 11y agoI don't think you can paint with such broad strokes. While it is important to have a sense of the founder's vision for the business (run for life, IPO, sell eventually, etc.), I can't say I blame them for cashing out if the situation makes business sense and aligns with their goals. It is THEIR business after all. But I think that just means there is more responsibility on the part of the founder to be transparent and forthright with his employees, particularly those who have equity. It is one thing to sell in a backroom. It is another to sell with the full knowledge and support of the company with the goal of getting as fair an outcome for all parties (including the employees that helped get them there). Believe it or not, there have been plenty of instances where the latter has happened. It isn't always like the founder makes bank and no employees get anything.
- dang 11y agoWhat a nasty thing to say—as if founders never cared about their business or the people they worked with. Please don't post such malicious things here. We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11029639 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11029639 and marked it off-topic.
- jimjag 11y agoI gotta admit, I've seen more cases of founders selling their business, taking the huge payouts (and screwing their employees at the same time) and simply leaving tech completely. It's not that they are burned out; they simply got what they wanted and moved on. The business, and the tech, was a means to an end, pure and simple.