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Question: Do the kind of people who work at places like stackmob, once their product has been killed, really want to work in other departments at paypal upgrad

Question: Do the kind of people who work at places like stackmob, once their product has been killed, really want to work in other departments at paypal upgrading ancient systems? (According to the article rradu posted this was why they were aquihired) It seems like they would run away as soon as possible since they worked at a place like stackmob over paypal in the first place. (I assume there are some sort of retention bonuses etc to try and keep them.)

colinbartlett 13y ago
That damn vesting period. Keeping unhappy employees around since 1995®.
- leobelle 13y ago
  The solution to this is to get more cash instead of equity, and don't stick around after acquisition. If you're looking to work as an employee at a startup to get rich, good luck with that. Early stage startups pay less than 50% of normal pay, and options are a fraction of a percent of the company. Unless the startup sale goes into 9 figures, which is probably less than 1% of all startups, you'll at best see a nice bonus. Later stage startups are just like big companies. With HR, managers, process, meetings, and the like. I don't work at startups for money. I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good. You get to meet your customers, you get to see a feature you've built contribute directly to more people signing up. Being a software engineer at a small startup is the best job in the world, and it doesn't pay well. All the things I like about being at a startup are things that don't exist at big companies. So when the eventual acquisition happens, I help transition because I owe it to the team, but then I'm out.
  - lostcolony 13y ago
    "I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good." I have that at a large company. My team owns a project, we have 3 devs, an architect, a QA, and a team lead. We even get to meet our customers, though as it's an internal project, for another business unit, 'people signing up' isn't quite as meaningful. But you get to see people whose jobs suddenly become much easier and the excitement that can cause.
  - paulhauggis 13y ago
    "I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good." I would rather build my own company. Why would I want to toil my life away at a terrible wage and extremely long hours, only to get a fractional percentage of the payout if the company is bought out? This is why I don't work at startups.
    - leobelle 13y ago
      Building a company requires skills that many, including myself do not have. You have to be able to sell. You have to be good with people. You have to be able to convince at least your friends to work on the idea with you. You have to have a good idea. And, you in the end you stop coding, and start worrying about business things. I like to code. I wouldn't mind owning my own business, but I haven't the skills and I haven't an idea so good that it would compensate for my lack thereof.
  - colinbartlett 13y ago
    I've always laughed at startups that offer me a big piece of equity in exchange for a lower salary. Why on earth would I want a worthless piece of paper in exchange for some very valuable pieces of paper?
gamache 13y ago
I worked at a PayPal acqui-hire. For a while, it was pretty good! We suddenly had EBAY RSU's instead of maybe-someday-money and the work didn't change (as the mothership decided what exactly to do with us). That lasted about three months, after which our product got spiked and we were tossed in on very PayPal-y projects. To answer your question: not really. Some of us found a niche at a place like PayPal, but a lot of us tried and weren't cut out for it. My heart goes out to StackMob and its employees. Get paid.
- rhizome 13y ago
  Same happened to me somewhere else. My advice for these situations is ASAP or GTFO the acquired unit. ASAP, lateral into the larger company if that's the kind of place you think you want to work, or GTFO the whole place whenever you feel like it. Regardless, get away from the acquired company so you don't become deadwood.

colinbartlett 13y ago

That damn vesting period. Keeping unhappy employees around since 1995®.

leobelle 13y ago
The solution to this is to get more cash instead of equity, and don't stick around after acquisition. If you're looking to work as an employee at a startup to get rich, good luck with that. Early stage startups pay less than 50% of normal pay, and options are a fraction of a percent of the company. Unless the startup sale goes into 9 figures, which is probably less than 1% of all startups, you'll at best see a nice bonus. Later stage startups are just like big companies. With HR, managers, process, meetings, and the like. I don't work at startups for money. I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good. You get to meet your customers, you get to see a feature you've built contribute directly to more people signing up. Being a software engineer at a small startup is the best job in the world, and it doesn't pay well. All the things I like about being at a startup are things that don't exist at big companies. So when the eventual acquisition happens, I help transition because I owe it to the team, but then I'm out.
- lostcolony 13y ago
  "I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good." I have that at a large company. My team owns a project, we have 3 devs, an architect, a QA, and a team lead. We even get to meet our customers, though as it's an internal project, for another business unit, 'people signing up' isn't quite as meaningful. But you get to see people whose jobs suddenly become much easier and the excitement that can cause.
- paulhauggis 13y ago
  "I work at a startup for the small team size, for the massive impact you make as an individual, for the team building experience, the hard times and the good." I would rather build my own company. Why would I want to toil my life away at a terrible wage and extremely long hours, only to get a fractional percentage of the payout if the company is bought out? This is why I don't work at startups.
  - leobelle 13y ago
    Building a company requires skills that many, including myself do not have. You have to be able to sell. You have to be good with people. You have to be able to convince at least your friends to work on the idea with you. You have to have a good idea. And, you in the end you stop coding, and start worrying about business things. I like to code. I wouldn't mind owning my own business, but I haven't the skills and I haven't an idea so good that it would compensate for my lack thereof.
- colinbartlett 13y ago
  I've always laughed at startups that offer me a big piece of equity in exchange for a lower salary. Why on earth would I want a worthless piece of paper in exchange for some very valuable pieces of paper?

gamache 13y ago

I worked at a PayPal acqui-hire. For a while, it was pretty good! We suddenly had EBAY RSU's instead of maybe-someday-money and the work didn't change (as the mothership decided what exactly to do with us). That lasted about three months, after which our product got spiked and we were tossed in on very PayPal-y projects. To answer your question: not really. Some of us found a niche at a place like PayPal, but a lot of us tried and weren't cut out for it. My heart goes out to StackMob and its employees. Get paid.

rhizome 13y ago
Same happened to me somewhere else. My advice for these situations is ASAP or GTFO the acquired unit. ASAP, lateral into the larger company if that's the kind of place you think you want to work, or GTFO the whole place whenever you feel like it. Regardless, get away from the acquired company so you don't become deadwood.