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If the CEO speaks loving about the beauty of an idea like Jodorowsky and says he's "the valuable idea guy" (who doesn't do any measurable work)... If the COO s

If the CEO speaks loving about the beauty of an idea like Jodorowsky and says he's "the valuable idea guy" (who doesn't do any measurable work)... If the COO says Papa Murphy's stole their idea from business school... If the CTO talks about placing tubes in the sky for renewable zero point energy... If the CEO has a long pinky fingernail... If no one can explain how money could ever possibly be made... If no one can explain how it's uniquely better, necessary, and defensible... If the stress level is constantly crash schedule burnout... If like a country club meetup, the 100 employees without measurable sales or more than 2 months of runway go on retreats, do team building exercises more than actually working... Unstable, immature founders constantly shouting at each other unproductively while one does no work and another is likely crazy... CEO is too cheap to hire employees who could speed things up, buy laptops or chairs for software engineers, or purchase office supplies despite having funding... With 50 employees, 5 layers of management and CEO salary is $1m / yr pre-product ... If no one will actually pay money for it ...

Simon_O_Rourke 4y ago
Sounds like a few places I've had friends work in. Anyone at a C-level who has to shout at staff is a red flag for me.
- cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
  Uncivilized and/or grossly unfair environment might be a tip off.
- buro9 4y ago
  > Anyone at a C-level who has to shout at staff is a red flag for me. The current generation of very large market cap companies had CEOs like this. It's harder to find a current unicorn or now established +$10B company that didn't have a C-level like this than ones that did (there are some good eggs at that level, but there's a hell of a lot of bad ones too).
  - rco8786 4y ago
    Any sort of source or data here? Has not been my experience.
    - buro9 4y ago
      Yes
  - icedchai 4y ago
    I briefly worked at a smaller unicorn. During "all hands" meetings, there would be frequent swearing. One of the "senior executives" gets up there, tells us we need to work harder because he has a ton of stock and he needs to get rich off of it. "Let's f-in get this done guys!!!" Real professionals. At a earlier company (not near unicorn levels, but raised over $100 million), the CEO gets up on stage. He tells us we need to be willing to work nights and weekends on [major project]. If we don't believe in the vision and the company, we should get out now. "The stairs are in the back of the room!" Both these companies were awful.
benreesman 4y ago
Yeah, someone’s parents are fucking rich or someone on the founding team took a shine to someone who never succeeded as an entrepreneur or both. The sad thing isn’t that we’re still money-laundering success through those channels. The sad thing is that we’re discussing this on a forum dedicated to the idea that knowing people isn’t everything and the guy who got the job of running it by flying his only startup into the side of a mountain isn’t even in charge anymore, he’s too busy, he’s long since handed it off to the guy who told Autodesk that SocialCam was going to be the next YouTube.

Simon_O_Rourke 4y ago

Sounds like a few places I've had friends work in. Anyone at a C-level who has to shout at staff is a red flag for me.

cvccvroomvroom 4y ago
Uncivilized and/or grossly unfair environment might be a tip off.
buro9 4y ago
> Anyone at a C-level who has to shout at staff is a red flag for me. The current generation of very large market cap companies had CEOs like this. It's harder to find a current unicorn or now established +$10B company that didn't have a C-level like this than ones that did (there are some good eggs at that level, but there's a hell of a lot of bad ones too).
- rco8786 4y ago
  Any sort of source or data here? Has not been my experience.
  - buro9 4y ago
    Yes
- icedchai 4y ago
  I briefly worked at a smaller unicorn. During "all hands" meetings, there would be frequent swearing. One of the "senior executives" gets up there, tells us we need to work harder because he has a ton of stock and he needs to get rich off of it. "Let's f-in get this done guys!!!" Real professionals. At a earlier company (not near unicorn levels, but raised over $100 million), the CEO gets up on stage. He tells us we need to be willing to work nights and weekends on [major project]. If we don't believe in the vision and the company, we should get out now. "The stairs are in the back of the room!" Both these companies were awful.

benreesman 4y ago

Yeah, someone’s parents are fucking rich or someone on the founding team took a shine to someone who never succeeded as an entrepreneur or both. The sad thing isn’t that we’re still money-laundering success through those channels. The sad thing is that we’re discussing this on a forum dedicated to the idea that knowing people isn’t everything and the guy who got the job of running it by flying his only startup into the side of a mountain isn’t even in charge anymore, he’s too busy, he’s long since handed it off to the guy who told Autodesk that SocialCam was going to be the next YouTube.