throwawayAug16

4 ms·

1.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
I had a longer reply but I deleted it because I was here for advice not to defend myself and I would get nothing but terrible useless advice if I lied. The possibility of your explanation being legitimate is certainly not there. It only mak
2.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Not true, I don't think that is obvious at all. In fact, I think very highly of my boss. If I didn't, I would have left years ago. It's one of the things that makes the idea of leaving so difficult. Second, that is a very spe
3.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Do you have any numbers or articles I can refer to to back up #2? There are actually a lot of investors in the company and it raised a fair amount of money before I came on board. I won't rule out #1. However, I'm basing that assu
4.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Your first point is a fair one. Although in this situation I think it falls under the "rarely" category, for a few reasons: - I do architecture, middle-tier, front-end, backend, DBA, devops, and engineering management. I have only
5.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
We do have products that are made in-house but none that generate even enough profits to cover a single salary. It didn't start that way. The consultancy came much later as a temporary alternative to shutting down. Unfortunately (fortu
6.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
The cases where I wasn't paid, my employer has a written agreement that I am temporarily taking a salary decrease in exchange for a deferred bonus with no date or time limit on the bonus so it's not quite that clear cut. I'm
7.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Near 100%. The non-consulting amount is not statistically significant. Why?
8.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
No, he doesn't. But even if he did. I've been careful not to include any answers that don't have plausible deniability and I have changed a few key numbers in such a way that it doesn't change the question significantly.
9.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Thank you for the advise. My daughter and my wife are certainly doing well but not as well as they can be. It's not like I can't provide for them at $110 per year. I think I will be talking to a lawyer if I do decide to leave. And
10.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Back of napkin math... staying an extra year would be slightly less than 50% more (the second 25% of my largest grant would hit and I'd have half of it). This is part of what makes the decision so hard. And it's worth noting the v
11.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
The company is break even, no sign of an investment round at the moment. I don't think the CEO has any desire to fund raise. We've had multiple seed rounds (about $5MM total) but haven't had one in over four years. Edit: brea
12.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
That is probably what I will end up doing.
13.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Depends on your definition of "ramen mode"... on my salary I can certainly afford more than ramen. (as previously mentioned, I live in an area cheaper than SF) I'm not sure asking him the plan would help, though. I've be
14.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
The tax burden on the options would be well more than I can afford. And like you mentioned, my leaving would have a very negative impact on valuation. My window is 2 years. So at least there is that. Although (not sure if I mentioned that),
15.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Thank you for the advice. I have tried similar in the past, but I have stopped shy of putting him in a corner. I have gotten him to agree to let me work on side projects in exchange for the company getting 20%. But I found the hours I need
16.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Just to add to it, there is a saying that comes up in my mind all the time (I'm paraphrasing and I don't know where I heard it): "The only thing worse than a failed startup is one that is doing just well enough to barely stay
17.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
To clarify: I give it a decent (but still less than 50%) chance of having a reasonable liquidity event. But I give it no chance of having that event before I sink another year or two of opportunity costs into it. It's a decision I weig
18.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
It's a good idea. But I just want to correct one thing. The CEO has generously put a lot of his own money into the company. Nearest I can figure close to (if not over) half his net worth. I don't blame him for not wanting to use h
19.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
That is a worry of mine, that 7 years at this company looks bad on a resume. Also, I was not trying to impress anyone with my salary. I am aware it is probably at least 50% below market. I was hoping the company would make due on it's
20.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
The CEO has a fair amount of money personally, I wouldn't put it past him to go after me with his personal funds. He's a generally nice guy but a ruthless business person, especially if someone torpedoes his company. On that note,
21.
by throwawayAug16 10y ago
Some notes because I ran out of room: I am a full-stack engineer with deep knowledge of devops, architecture, cloud computing, middle-tier, back-end, and front-end development. I wouldn't call myself expert in any of them but I'm
22.
Ask HN: Should I leave my startup?
16 points by throwawayAug16 10y ago|51 comments