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1. Not me 2. We have enough discussion which make me pretty uncomfortable because of fact I'm treated as a very cheap hight quality contractor, not more, beside

1. Not me 2. We have enough discussion which make me pretty uncomfortable because of fact I'm treated as a very cheap hight quality contractor, not more, besides of tons of bullshiting as "we are one family" "building the team for a years" "one day we raise the money and everybody will be rich". The first batch of money is raised already but for the tech-team we got nothing but deadlines to new features to implement. 3. I would consider myself as core-team member, but legally is not. The founders in US, the tech-team in Asia, I don't really believe to their promising to bring us to US. 4. Thank you for the advice. I never had any experience with it, well, it's time.

Shinmon 4y ago
Too many red flags. I wouldn't even want to continue working with them as a contractor from what you have described here. Sounds like they are looking primarily for cheap labor to work for them while them being on a power trip. Good founders care about their team, even more so when the team is small enough for everyone to know everyone else.
batmaniam 4y ago
You and the other developer basically built the product to the point where they're able to get real, actual money into the founder's hands. That alone demonstrates that you have great ability in what you do and getting it done successfully. The way these founders are carrying out their actions is pre-planned. Everything you listed that they did was to protect and set themselves up to be the sole owner and reap all the benefits. And considering you're from another country, there is a huge chance they'll just rip you off or break their employment agreements with you whenever they want (probably including sketchy math when it comes to options payout/dilution). And you will have no recourse unless you want to wait years and pay for the legal costs that come with it. You can test the waters too. See if they'll make you a full time employee, and get a title bump of CTO or something. Or if you think that's too much, get like Senior Architect or something that will look good on your resume for your next job. And ask for a real huge salary bump. If they say they can't do it, or can do it next year (ie putting it off), you'll know they're not serious about keeping you, which means they're already planning on screwing you at some point. As you said, you don't really believe their verbal promises, so bring up a real conversation with real tangible benefits to you and watch carefully how their poker face reacts. It'll tell you a lot. But to be honest, I would plan to cash out and use your work time to find a different gig in the meantime. Scale back your deliveries and prep for interviews. Your skill level is likely high enough to work at a big named corp with great pay and benefits (ie Google and the like). Larger corps are a lot less likely to rip you off unlike startup founders because they generally have presence in the the country they're operating in and have to follow local laws. Good luck!

Shinmon 4y ago

Too many red flags. I wouldn't even want to continue working with them as a contractor from what you have described here. Sounds like they are looking primarily for cheap labor to work for them while them being on a power trip. Good founders care about their team, even more so when the team is small enough for everyone to know everyone else.

batmaniam 4y ago

You and the other developer basically built the product to the point where they're able to get real, actual money into the founder's hands. That alone demonstrates that you have great ability in what you do and getting it done successfully. The way these founders are carrying out their actions is pre-planned. Everything you listed that they did was to protect and set themselves up to be the sole owner and reap all the benefits. And considering you're from another country, there is a huge chance they'll just rip you off or break their employment agreements with you whenever they want (probably including sketchy math when it comes to options payout/dilution). And you will have no recourse unless you want to wait years and pay for the legal costs that come with it. You can test the waters too. See if they'll make you a full time employee, and get a title bump of CTO or something. Or if you think that's too much, get like Senior Architect or something that will look good on your resume for your next job. And ask for a real huge salary bump. If they say they can't do it, or can do it next year (ie putting it off), you'll know they're not serious about keeping you, which means they're already planning on screwing you at some point. As you said, you don't really believe their verbal promises, so bring up a real conversation with real tangible benefits to you and watch carefully how their poker face reacts. It'll tell you a lot. But to be honest, I would plan to cash out and use your work time to find a different gig in the meantime. Scale back your deliveries and prep for interviews. Your skill level is likely high enough to work at a big named corp with great pay and benefits (ie Google and the like). Larger corps are a lot less likely to rip you off unlike startup founders because they generally have presence in the the country they're operating in and have to follow local laws. Good luck!