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Different point of view: I was a Founder and CEO during the dot com era. The company survived and became successful ($2B revenues today). It may be unpopular,
by jbkiv 7y ago
Different point of view: I was a Founder and CEO during the dot com era. The company survived and became successful ($2B revenues today).
It may be unpopular, but I will give you a different view, the one from a Founder/CEO.
After the dot com crash no VC could figure out the good from the bad in their portfolio companies. I was starting to get conflicting opinions from my board (4 VC’s and me, the Founder). “Become a BtoB company, a BtoBtoC company,etc,...”.
Some VC’s offered a bridge (and declined at the last minute), others claimed they were running of money, others did not know.
A white knight came in the form of a bottom feeder. Those kinds of sharks are circling around your company right now. Vc’s are just happy to unload their portfolio companies to them, so they can save the face, some employees, and maybe the company.
Anyway, the deal came with a caveat: I had to fire 40% of the staff and I had to quit after that to make room for “professional management”.As a Founder I had hired every single engineer, every single marketing rep. This was a very difficult one to swallow, but I had no choice.
The night before I did not sleep. I was up at 5 and drove early to the office. I stopped multiple times as I was sobbing and could not drive (I wear glasses).
Mid morning I called an all hands meeting. Got up the steps to talk to everybody. There was silence, as everybody sort of knew by then that something was brewing.
As I was reading to talk, I started crying. Everybody was watching me in silence.
As I was getting myself together I explained the situation, that we had a way out but that 40% of them had to go. One engineer raised his hand and said “I’ll stay with no pay”.
Then a second one.
I started crying again. Folks would come to me and say “we’ll be all right” and I would reply “thank you”. When asked what the structure would be, I said I did not know. I knew that after the layoffs I would be silently asked to leave.
A lot of people moved on, did well, got better jobs over the years.
So, be kind to your Founders, and all the early employees who worked for months and years with no pay because they believe so much in what they were working on.
In the past 5-10 years, we have seen a lot of excesses, super expensive office spaces, unbelievable perks and salaries, $30K conference room tables and unlimited money printed by VC’s and later stage investors. Well, maybe this is it. If you get laid off don’t be angry, don’t blame others, and move on. Don’t take that personally.
As for me, I never fully recovered from the worst day of my life, and that was 19 years ago. :-(
- masonhensley 7y agoThanks for sharing, have you written about any other experiences?
- jbkiv 7y agoNot really. But the current crisis brings back memories. And a lot of similarities, unfortunately.
- Judgmentality 7y ago> The night before I did not sleep. I was up at 5 and drove early to the office. I stopped multiple times as I was sobbing and could not drive (I wear glasses). > As I was reading to talk, I started crying. Everybody was watching me in silence. I know my comment is slightly off-topic to the article, but I just wanted to empathize with you and what was the worst day of your life. My company failed completely, but when I had to make the announcement I was sobbing uncontrollably to the point where I was having trouble breathing, in front of everyone (some were sympathetic, some were bitter, all went on to better things almost immediately - none had any interest in working for free). It's just fucking awful. I'm doing better now, but fuck just remembering how horrible that was made me feel compelled to write this comment. > As for me, I never fully recovered from the worst day of my life, and that was 19 years ago. :-( I hope you're also doing better today.
- jbkiv 7y agoSo you understand...Thank you. I learned plenty of lessons: make money, don't over hire, be frugal, don't bend to pressure for fancy gigs and out of control travel expenses. Plenty of lessons for sure. I have sympathy for Founders who will find themselves in that kind of situation. That miserable sense of failure to your people. Good luck to all.
- californical 7y agoI really appreciate you for sharing your story, thank you. As someone hoping to found a company in the next 5-10 years, this is my nightmare scenario as well. I'm glad it all worked out for everyone in the end, and it sounds like your employees really trusted and cared for you add much as you did them. I'm only a couple of years into my career, so I knew but never fully understood how bad the dot com (and 08) recessions were. Kinda scary to hear stories like this, then think of my current job at a mid-size startup. I think we have enough cash for a bit, but it seems like things can change so quickly. It seems like you have a lot of wisdom about situations like this, for better or worse hah.. do you have any advice for a younger dev right now? I already have a lot of savings, but I'm really interested in your opinions about how to reduce the impacts of the impending recession on my career goals, and to come out ahead when it's all over.