Stability AI co-founder suing CEO | Hacker News Reader

Stability AI co-founder suing CEO

documentcloud.org

41 pointssimantel10 comments

I'm surprised I haven't seen any reporting about this, but Dr. Tayab Waseem, who was Chief Scientific Officer at Stability in 2020, is suing Emad Mostaque, the CEO, over a 10% equity stake that was allegedly agreed upon but never materialized.

Stability has since raised at a $1B+ valuation.

Oh wow, they presented him as "Chief Scientific Officer" and co-founder in their pitch deck (page 8 of the PDF) ... and then 2 years later they say he was actually an unpaid intern so they'll refuse to pay him and/or give him any equity.

Yeah, and he claims to have the equity offer in writing, too!

31. Hodes and Mostaque confirmed Dr. Waseem's 10% equity interest in written messages to each other.

33. Since Stability Al had cash flow issues and fell behind in paying its outside counsel, Mostaque told Dr. Waseem that Stability AI would wait to formally document Dr. Waseem's equity interest until the company received additional financing.

I don't believe for a second that a hedge fund boss conveniently failed to record a 10% equity share by accident.

You don’t have 100B params without making a few enemies

Stability AI scientist suing ceo and Co founder.

That's kind of the core of the lawsuit. Dr. Waseem was Chief Scientific Officer in 2020, and allegedly was represented to investors as a co-founder.

Can someone give a TL;DR?

The scientist put money in out of his own pocket and did not get reimbursed for it.

The lawsuit does allege that he spent $11k out of pocket, but was then reimbursed by the company. They're alleging that as evidence that Dr. Waseem was in fact a full employee of the company, and not an intern as Stability is claiming.

I'd say the tl;dr is that Mostaque is trying to Zuck Dr. Waseem out of a 10% equity stake for early contributions that's apparently in writing.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com