5 ms·

Ask HN: Quit startup, and they still using me on the deck to raise money

9 points by dominickt 12y ago

I was one of the co-founders of a tech startup. 2 years ago i decided to leave the company, and just be happy with my already vested shares.Currently the company is doing OK and trying to raise more funds, and as it turns out they still using my previous experience, reputation and name to get better valuation and create trust in the product. I love the company but i left my co-founder for a reason, and dont want to be associated with it, especially now that I have no idea about the codebase and customer satisfaction.What shall i do? is there a legal way to force them not to use my name on any money raising occasion or PR or marketing? thanks in advance, dominic

jtfairbank 12y ago
Have you asked them to remove you from the materials?
- dominickt 12y ago
  Yes, and they said since I was the early co founder they have all the rights to feature me. I just dont feel OK with it at all, since they mislead future investors and customers and possibly damaging my reputation by misusing my name
gt565k 12y ago
Probably best to talk to a lawyer.
- dominickt 12y ago
  Agree, just wanted to get some thoughts from the community. Specially from people who experienced similar, or lawyer:)
- crazypyro 12y ago
  It is highly possible a single strongly worded letter from a lawyer would be enough to scare them.
davismwfl 12y ago
I am not a lawyer, but it should be cheap enough to ask one for an opinion that counts. But I'll toss my opinion out there. This is not unique to startups and/or founders. Likeness is a contractually controllable commodity, e.g. using your image, reputation etc. The catch 22 for you is that as long as the current team is not mis-representing your role or current activity, I think it may be tough for you to stop. But I think you can likely get it stopped if they are mis-representing your current level of involvement. Think of it this way, it really would be no different then a company saying hey, Bill Gates was one of our co-founders, he left the company to pursue clean water but ya know he really gave us a good start. I think that would be tough to stop, but I could be wrong. I have had prior employers use my involvement with a project to prove to a new customer that the people who created the product had industry credibility. Is that illegal? I seriously doubt it, my bet is that they have the right to say that as long as they don't mis-represent that I am still working the project. I personally do not like that one employer did that, because I really did not believe in the updates they made to the product. At the same time I did not pursue whether there was anything I could do about it. I figured if anyone ever asked me, I'd just tell them the truth at that point. My bet is a lot of engineers have had this happen and just do not realize it.
- dominickt 12y ago
  Awesome input. cheers
jimsmart 12y ago
I am not a lawyer, but I used to do dev-ops on one of the leading 'free online legal advice' type sites in the UK. You don't say which country you are in, but if you google that phrase and your country, you'll likely find a site where you can post your question, and it will be answered (for free, with no strings) by a lawyer. [Edit: or you may find that a similar question has already been asked on the site, and you can read the lawyers reply/advice] As davismwfl rightly commented, you do have some modicum of control over the usage of your likeness, and if they are factually misrepresenting you/your present situation (your present relationship with them—or lack thereof), then you (most probably) can take some action. My guess is that a lawyer would advise you to pony-up a small amount of cash for a cease and desist letter to be sent on your behalf. Hope that helps.
- dominickt 12y ago
  will do some googling
zhte415 12y ago
Given you have vested shares, would you like an upside to the company? If not, the advice already given about legal advice seems appropriate. Not mutually exclusive to legal advice, but if interested in on-going success, just update your social media profiles that a potential customer / investor is likely to review on due diligence with something like 'founding member of___', no longer involved with operations / strategy of ___ but support their mission [state mission URL here] (assuming you still support the same broad mission statement)'
- dominickt 12y ago
  Yes i want the company to succeed, but not on my back: for example the deck states me as founder plus my experience making VC believe that the product is "secure". The product offering is based on customers trust and encryption techniques, kind of IT security app. I think i worked hard enough to get the vested shares 2 years ago, but by now i have hardly any impact on the product or the management; only attending yearly board meetings. I have other companies invested/founded which would be affected if my reputation is damaged by THE company misusing my name.
patmcc 12y ago
Are they misrepresenting you? Are they saying "dominickt was a co-founder, currently holds shares, and gave us an incredible start" or "dominickt is still active in the company"? I think that's a major difference.
- dominickt 12y ago
  they are saying that "domickt experience and past involvement in the company assures that the product is secure and should be trusted". PLUS the site and PR material says because domickt as a co-founder had experience working "google", "apple" the product is bulletproof. And since I left i have no idea how trusted the product and people involved can be.

9 points by dominickt 12y ago

jtfairbank 12y ago

Have you asked them to remove you from the materials?

dominickt 12y ago
Yes, and they said since I was the early co founder they have all the rights to feature me. I just dont feel OK with it at all, since they mislead future investors and customers and possibly damaging my reputation by misusing my name

gt565k 12y ago

Probably best to talk to a lawyer.

dominickt 12y ago
Agree, just wanted to get some thoughts from the community. Specially from people who experienced similar, or lawyer:)
crazypyro 12y ago
It is highly possible a single strongly worded letter from a lawyer would be enough to scare them.

davismwfl 12y ago

I am not a lawyer, but it should be cheap enough to ask one for an opinion that counts. But I'll toss my opinion out there. This is not unique to startups and/or founders. Likeness is a contractually controllable commodity, e.g. using your image, reputation etc. The catch 22 for you is that as long as the current team is not mis-representing your role or current activity, I think it may be tough for you to stop. But I think you can likely get it stopped if they are mis-representing your current level of involvement. Think of it this way, it really would be no different then a company saying hey, Bill Gates was one of our co-founders, he left the company to pursue clean water but ya know he really gave us a good start. I think that would be tough to stop, but I could be wrong. I have had prior employers use my involvement with a project to prove to a new customer that the people who created the product had industry credibility. Is that illegal? I seriously doubt it, my bet is that they have the right to say that as long as they don't mis-represent that I am still working the project. I personally do not like that one employer did that, because I really did not believe in the updates they made to the product. At the same time I did not pursue whether there was anything I could do about it. I figured if anyone ever asked me, I'd just tell them the truth at that point. My bet is a lot of engineers have had this happen and just do not realize it.

dominickt 12y ago
Awesome input. cheers

jimsmart 12y ago

I am not a lawyer, but I used to do dev-ops on one of the leading 'free online legal advice' type sites in the UK. You don't say which country you are in, but if you google that phrase and your country, you'll likely find a site where you can post your question, and it will be answered (for free, with no strings) by a lawyer. [Edit: or you may find that a similar question has already been asked on the site, and you can read the lawyers reply/advice] As davismwfl rightly commented, you do have some modicum of control over the usage of your likeness, and if they are factually misrepresenting you/your present situation (your present relationship with them—or lack thereof), then you (most probably) can take some action. My guess is that a lawyer would advise you to pony-up a small amount of cash for a cease and desist letter to be sent on your behalf. Hope that helps.

dominickt 12y ago
will do some googling

zhte415 12y ago

Given you have vested shares, would you like an upside to the company? If not, the advice already given about legal advice seems appropriate. Not mutually exclusive to legal advice, but if interested in on-going success, just update your social media profiles that a potential customer / investor is likely to review on due diligence with something like 'founding member of___', no longer involved with operations / strategy of ___ but support their mission [state mission URL here] (assuming you still support the same broad mission statement)'

dominickt 12y ago
Yes i want the company to succeed, but not on my back: for example the deck states me as founder plus my experience making VC believe that the product is "secure". The product offering is based on customers trust and encryption techniques, kind of IT security app. I think i worked hard enough to get the vested shares 2 years ago, but by now i have hardly any impact on the product or the management; only attending yearly board meetings. I have other companies invested/founded which would be affected if my reputation is damaged by THE company misusing my name.

patmcc 12y ago

Are they misrepresenting you? Are they saying "dominickt was a co-founder, currently holds shares, and gave us an incredible start" or "dominickt is still active in the company"? I think that's a major difference.

dominickt 12y ago
they are saying that "domickt experience and past involvement in the company assures that the product is secure and should be trusted". PLUS the site and PR material says because domickt as a co-founder had experience working "google", "apple" the product is bulletproof. And since I left i have no idea how trusted the product and people involved can be.