4 ms·

kind of a wild idea: have you considered contacting both management teams, explaining the situation and asking if they'll write you a new contract that retroact

by a-dub 5y ago

kind of a wild idea: have you considered contacting both management teams, explaining the situation and asking if they'll write you a new contract that retroactively allows you to put things in a state as if you had exercised? you did work for them in good faith, they offered renumeration in good faith. you made a mistake which leaves you out the equity... if they really did intend to compensate you with the equity, i see no reason why they couldn't do it retroactively now. they may at first blush just interpret the old agreement without thinking, but if they intended for you to end up with that equity, why wouldn't they make it right now... before lawyers get involved.

Meph504 5y ago
There are tons of reasons why a company wouldn't give up millions of dollars. if his percentage was say even just 3% that would be in the neighborhood of $90,000,000. Now, if they do this, how many potential others may come back with similar claims. Also, consider that every investor that made the choice to invest wasn't aware of this, and rightly so as the window had closed, That ends up a lot to unpack, and a lot of possible legal issues, and I'm sure that merger did not include that debt. It just wouldn't be practical, and may not even be legal.
- a-dub 5y ago
  if i was running a company, and this happened to someone who helped me in the founding days in a material way, i would do whatever was necessary to make them whole. ideally there wouldn't be any others who would come back with similar claims, because if you did your job right, they wouldn't lose their comp on a legal technicality. isn't that a big reason why you have leaders and executives, to make things right when things don't go as planned?
gtsteve 5y ago
I'd do this if I were OP. There is nothing to lose. It certainly seems to me as a non-lawyer that if the facts are as they are written it would be at their discretion. Perhaps the original deal won't be honoured but a token payment for good karma could happen. It could still be significant given the numbers involved. I would personally have not named the companies in a post on HN though. I suggest the OP edit this if they still can.
- thijsvandien 5y ago
  > I would personally have not named the companies in a post on HN though. I suggest the OP edit this if they still can. The evaluation combined with the post date makes it rather easy to guess though.

by a-dub 5y ago

Meph504 5y ago

There are tons of reasons why a company wouldn't give up millions of dollars. if his percentage was say even just 3% that would be in the neighborhood of $90,000,000. Now, if they do this, how many potential others may come back with similar claims. Also, consider that every investor that made the choice to invest wasn't aware of this, and rightly so as the window had closed, That ends up a lot to unpack, and a lot of possible legal issues, and I'm sure that merger did not include that debt. It just wouldn't be practical, and may not even be legal.

a-dub 5y ago
if i was running a company, and this happened to someone who helped me in the founding days in a material way, i would do whatever was necessary to make them whole. ideally there wouldn't be any others who would come back with similar claims, because if you did your job right, they wouldn't lose their comp on a legal technicality. isn't that a big reason why you have leaders and executives, to make things right when things don't go as planned?

gtsteve 5y ago

I'd do this if I were OP. There is nothing to lose. It certainly seems to me as a non-lawyer that if the facts are as they are written it would be at their discretion. Perhaps the original deal won't be honoured but a token payment for good karma could happen. It could still be significant given the numbers involved. I would personally have not named the companies in a post on HN though. I suggest the OP edit this if they still can.

thijsvandien 5y ago
> I would personally have not named the companies in a post on HN though. I suggest the OP edit this if they still can. The evaluation combined with the post date makes it rather easy to guess though.