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The complaint suggests that he was asked to make up his mind really quickly without extended discussion with a lawyer. "Altman, also said he was authorized to

The complaint suggests that he was asked to make up his mind really quickly without extended discussion with a lawyer. "Altman, also said he was authorized to negotiate on Cruise’s behalf and offered Guillory triple the amount of Vogt’s previous offer, but only if Guillory would agree to sign a formal settlement agreement that same day. Cruise’s attorneys then sent Guillory a lengthy settlement demand and Altman told him he could have only two hours to propose any changes. When Guillory told Altman he would not be able to meet that deadline because he needed to review the proposed terms of the agreement with legal counsel, Altman told Guillory he should fire his lawyer if he had already retained one, and offered to send him a list of lawyers to consult. Guillory could not comply with Cruise’s unreasonable deadline, and as a result, it passed on Friday, April 8, 2016."

toomuchtodo 11y ago
That's damning if true, and paints YC and sama in a very poor light.
nikcub 11y ago
I find this hard to believe considering how strongly sama has come out against exploding offers: http://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck http://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck Even characterizing them as "terrible behavior"
- joslin01 11y ago
  Right, but he also said: > Given the time pressure because of the pending merger, we had to set a Friday at 5 pm deadline for Kyle’s offer, which Jeremy let expire.
  - nikcub 11y ago
    Investor exploding offer: "Given the time pressure because of other deals we're looking at" Employer exploding offer: "Given the time pressure because of other candidates" Everybody has a way of dressing up an exploding offer. And FTR, I still don't believe that this is exactly what happen.
imron 11y ago
If this is true (and given the obvious biases being displayed by both sides, I'm not sure it is), but if it is, it would really lower my opinion of Sam Altman. He knows exploding offers suck[0] and he knows they are used to exert time pressure on people rather than letting them make informed decisions. I know he said in his Cruise post they had no choice because they were under time pressure themselves from the merger, but to not give him sufficient time to consult his own lawyer and to suggest instead to choose one from a list he provided, doesn't really seem like someone acting in good faith. Whatever time pressure they are under due to the merger is only going to be intensified due to this matter and I can't help but wonder if it's made things worse. [0]https://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck https://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck
- cookiecaper 11y ago
  Exploding offers suck for whom? That's what's missing from that post. They suck for the disadvantaged party. They're used because they're beneficial to the advantaged party. That blog post is propaganda for YC; it says "Hey, look, the other VCs are gonna try to be mean to you, but we're gonna be REEEEAL nice ;)". They just picked something that they knew was a pet peeve for founders and that they knew wouldn't really cost them substantially to exclude from their courting strategies (as YC already has the best reputation in the business, they don't need exploding offers to get founders to sign up with them). There was probably a list of 5 "X sucks" articles that could've been written and sama just picked the one he felt he could work with best that day. Such pieces should be recognized as the intentionally-placed PR pieces they are, instead of pretending like it's just a random, unvetted musing from the YC president. sama really wants this deal to go through and he is pulling out all the stops to try to make it happen, including pressuring Jeremy in a way that he's already stated is unfair (though it's unclear how sincerely-held this belief is and how much is just an attempt to court more founders; sama's employment of this technique seems to imply he doesn't really think it's that bad) and then publicly shaming Jeremy to try to get control of the story's narrative and make it "lazy nerd tries to defraud noble investors who push the boundaries of tech" instead of "mega-rich investors won't let a founder get his share of a massive buyout". Every action is a tradeoff. If I'm being honest, I would probably do a similar thing if I were in sama's shoes, and do everything I could to spin the situation in my favor, since I had already convinced myself that my position was fundamentally correct and that this guy really was trying to rip everyone off. I think most of us would, even if we're not willing to admit it on HN.

toomuchtodo 11y ago

That's damning if true, and paints YC and sama in a very poor light.

nikcub 11y ago

I find this hard to believe considering how strongly sama has come out against exploding offers: http://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck http://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck Even characterizing them as "terrible behavior"

joslin01 11y ago
Right, but he also said: > Given the time pressure because of the pending merger, we had to set a Friday at 5 pm deadline for Kyle’s offer, which Jeremy let expire.
- nikcub 11y ago
  Investor exploding offer: "Given the time pressure because of other deals we're looking at" Employer exploding offer: "Given the time pressure because of other candidates" Everybody has a way of dressing up an exploding offer. And FTR, I still don't believe that this is exactly what happen.

imron 11y ago

If this is true (and given the obvious biases being displayed by both sides, I'm not sure it is), but if it is, it would really lower my opinion of Sam Altman. He knows exploding offers suck[0] and he knows they are used to exert time pressure on people rather than letting them make informed decisions. I know he said in his Cruise post they had no choice because they were under time pressure themselves from the merger, but to not give him sufficient time to consult his own lawyer and to suggest instead to choose one from a list he provided, doesn't really seem like someone acting in good faith. Whatever time pressure they are under due to the merger is only going to be intensified due to this matter and I can't help but wonder if it's made things worse. [0]https://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck https://blog.ycombinator.com/exploding-offers-suck

cookiecaper 11y ago
Exploding offers suck for whom? That's what's missing from that post. They suck for the disadvantaged party. They're used because they're beneficial to the advantaged party. That blog post is propaganda for YC; it says "Hey, look, the other VCs are gonna try to be mean to you, but we're gonna be REEEEAL nice ;)". They just picked something that they knew was a pet peeve for founders and that they knew wouldn't really cost them substantially to exclude from their courting strategies (as YC already has the best reputation in the business, they don't need exploding offers to get founders to sign up with them). There was probably a list of 5 "X sucks" articles that could've been written and sama just picked the one he felt he could work with best that day. Such pieces should be recognized as the intentionally-placed PR pieces they are, instead of pretending like it's just a random, unvetted musing from the YC president. sama really wants this deal to go through and he is pulling out all the stops to try to make it happen, including pressuring Jeremy in a way that he's already stated is unfair (though it's unclear how sincerely-held this belief is and how much is just an attempt to court more founders; sama's employment of this technique seems to imply he doesn't really think it's that bad) and then publicly shaming Jeremy to try to get control of the story's narrative and make it "lazy nerd tries to defraud noble investors who push the boundaries of tech" instead of "mega-rich investors won't let a founder get his share of a massive buyout". Every action is a tradeoff. If I'm being honest, I would probably do a similar thing if I were in sama's shoes, and do everything I could to spin the situation in my favor, since I had already convinced myself that my position was fundamentally correct and that this guy really was trying to rip everyone off. I think most of us would, even if we're not willing to admit it on HN.