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I love building. I’d do an MVP for much less equity if I’d actually get it. But I won’t. One of my MVPs turned into a $500M acquisition. Got $0. This is normal
by jl2718 8y ago
I love building. I’d do an MVP for much less equity if I’d actually get it. But I won’t. One of my MVPs turned into a $500M acquisition. Got $0.
This is normal in Silicon Valley. So many unicorns hiding skeletons of enthusiastic side-project coders.
I’d say don’t do it, but... to be honest, I never could have hyped my own prototype the way they did. I didn’t have the rich kid VC connections that they did. And I needed my day job. So really I lost nothing. At least I got the story.
- whitepoplar 8y agoAre you able to mention the company, either publicly or privately?
- UweSchmidt 8y agoWhatever happened was probably entirely legal and probably ethical as well. You can be a cofounder, and have ownership even if there is a lack of contracts and paperwork, and that likely would have come up during that $500M acquisition. I can't find it, but there was a Ycombinator - backed startup whose sale was blocked by a founder who went AWOL early. If he was an employee, or did otherwise hand over / accept compensation for his work, well, that's just business as usual: employees generating wealth for owners. The lesson is to have clarity of what you want out of a certain work, and then have some kind of contract, before you start working.
- jl2718 8y agoWell, I never have, but, life is short, and this was long ago, so... Skybox.
- esquire_900 8y agoSorry to hear about your experience. That's one of the main things that puts me off about the current startup/VC relationship. I am not a Silicon Valley kid though, don't want to be, and this isn't going to be a unicorn.
- avinium 8y ago> At least I got the story. Would you mind sharing?
- jl2718 8y agoOh boy... Well, doesn't do me any good, so never before told, but I guess I only have so many stories to tell before I get hit by a bus, so... Briefly: 2007-2009 Satellite project at Stanford. Very modest capabilities. Prof had idea. Design and operating system by adjunct. Hardware by LMT volunteer (the real hero). I, also volunteer, wrote control software, did radiation testing at UCD LinAc. Bunch of students too. Then deployed to Afghanistan, heard nothing. Came back 3 years later, went to random meetup: person I've never seen presenting talk about founding company with brilliant undergrad who built a tiny satellite that could read license plates from space. Wait... what? Oh that guy. Hmmm... well, I wouldn't have done it, but hey, the pitch worked. $100M funding... wow. $500M acquisition by Google... eyes wide open. AFAIK, others not involved. Hope HW hero got something: quiet, humble, fast, obsessive, helpful, learned so much from him, but seems to have disappeared.
- arisAlexis 8y agoI have a similar story.I guess there are many of us
- so_tired 8y agoWeird that someone there doesnt throw u a $100K acquisition bonus just for good karma... If u think u would enjoy gradually building a B2C product drop me a line. Maybe i can hook on u on a better story... B2C, paid product, well differentiated, plenty of demand. sdjhsdfjkhkjsdf@maildrop.cc (disposable, 24hrs, messages may be read by others)