No way. Three 'standard' lessons: 1. When you hire, what's the likelihood that you'll want to pay for the skillset 1-2 years from now (= the startup's runway),

No way. Three 'standard' lessons: 1. When you hire, what's the likelihood that you'll want to pay for the skillset 1-2 years from now (= the startup's runway), and does the budget support it? (Corollary: experiments are planned. A 3 month experiment that results in mass firings is either flawed, not actually an experiment, or sociopathic.) 2. Communicate #1 during the hiring process. 3. As an employee, ask about the above. I hope that everyone went in with eyes wide open with respect to the above questions. If that was the case, this shouldn't have been so bad. If it wasn't... I'm curious what the board meetings were like.