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I was once an early employee of a successful startup (got some founder's stock) that grew to several hundred employees. I designed and implemented products and

I was once an early employee of a successful startup (got some founder's stock) that grew to several hundred employees. I designed and implemented products and features that were instrumental in driving tens of millions of dollars in sales. Even though they paid me pretty well, I generated at least $25 for every dollar they paid me. They eventually brought in a new management team who did not have a clue about which engineers actually got the company to its current state. They eventually had a big round of layoffs as they tried to get the company ready for an acquisition. I was thrown into the mix because I had complained to a few of the new business guys that the company had stopped innovating.

Laaas 4y ago
Did they do better or worse after firing you?
- didgetmaster 4y ago
  They sold the company about a year later. I held onto my stock (they couldn't take that away) so I did fairly well with the buyout. The company that bought it had no clue what to do with its products. They just put them in 'maintenance mode' and tried to extract as much cash from existing customers until they all left because nothing new was being introduced. Hard to say if the situation became better or worse after the layoff. I was convinced that we could have kept the momentum going if the good engineers were allowed to keep innovating, but since that never happened who knows what the outcome would have been otherwise.
  - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
    Hey that's every big-company-buys-little-one story ever. The product is bought essentially to control it or kill it. Because it's a threat or is cannibalizing some product BigCo already sells.
    - didgetmaster 4y ago
      'Every..story ever' seems a bit of a stretch. I agree that many acquisitions are done for the purpose of killing off the competition; but there have been quite a few that significantly strengthen and expanded the offerings of the acquiring company. But that takes real vision in the management teams of both companies, which is often sorely lacking.
      - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
        I guess I've never been lucky enough for that to happen to the companies I'm part of, when they get bought. Nor my brothers. Nor my son. It may happen somewhere, that the managers at a big company welcome strangers with open arms that threaten their hegemony and budget. It's gotta be rare.
  - simfree 4y ago
    It's not just development that stalled when the company was acquired and management changed, but sales and support stalling too, preventing new customer onboarding and current customer retention.
deleted 4y ago
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Laaas 4y ago

Did they do better or worse after firing you?

didgetmaster 4y ago
They sold the company about a year later. I held onto my stock (they couldn't take that away) so I did fairly well with the buyout. The company that bought it had no clue what to do with its products. They just put them in 'maintenance mode' and tried to extract as much cash from existing customers until they all left because nothing new was being introduced. Hard to say if the situation became better or worse after the layoff. I was convinced that we could have kept the momentum going if the good engineers were allowed to keep innovating, but since that never happened who knows what the outcome would have been otherwise.
- JoeAltmaier 4y ago
  Hey that's every big-company-buys-little-one story ever. The product is bought essentially to control it or kill it. Because it's a threat or is cannibalizing some product BigCo already sells.
  - didgetmaster 4y ago
    'Every..story ever' seems a bit of a stretch. I agree that many acquisitions are done for the purpose of killing off the competition; but there have been quite a few that significantly strengthen and expanded the offerings of the acquiring company. But that takes real vision in the management teams of both companies, which is often sorely lacking.
    - JoeAltmaier 4y ago
      I guess I've never been lucky enough for that to happen to the companies I'm part of, when they get bought. Nor my brothers. Nor my son. It may happen somewhere, that the managers at a big company welcome strangers with open arms that threaten their hegemony and budget. It's gotta be rare.
- simfree 4y ago
  It's not just development that stalled when the company was acquired and management changed, but sales and support stalling too, preventing new customer onboarding and current customer retention.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]