What to do when your startup grows up? | Hacker News Reader

What to do when your startup grows up?

6 pointsscumola5 comments

I've been with my employer since the startup days about 4 years ago now. I'm not a founder, but I'm one of the earlier employees. The company is now profitable. The startup feel is gone. The quick-n-dirty, put something great together, fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants, work late nights, brainstorm new ideas feel of the company is gone. Now there are measure-twice, cut once policies & procedures in place. Strict working schedules. No changes to production code without written approval from everyone above me. People get chewed-out now instead of congratulated. It sucks. I would leave if it weren't for the outstanding stock that the company is using as a carrot on a stick to keep me on the corporate treadmill. My question is: For those of you who live an breathe startups, what would you do? Would you stick with the company to age into the rest of your promised equity even though the work environment isn't what I joined when I signed on, or would you cut your losses and move to another startup with the hopes of greener pastures?

You've been there 4 years but you still have significant unvested stock? Can you explain that?

Just by the tone of your post, it's obvious that you long to move to something else. And frankly, you should.

The only math that I would do is a reasonable estimate of the future valuation of your unvested stock. Is it really significant enough to keep you there? The alternative is that you would start your own company as a co-founder, own millions of shares of something that may be worth nothing or a lot. How does that compare to your current situation?

Presumably, you should have enough vested that if your current company is the next Google and your next one is a flop, you still get a nice pile of cash.

If possible, how about discussing your situation with one of the founders? They might have a secret project they want to try out, and are also a bit thrown off by the new atmosphere.

Otherwise figure out for sure exactly how big the carrot is they are dangling. Everyone has a price. The beauty of stock options (from an employer perspective) is that the employees never really know what they are or could be worth. Additionally, if they got funding the VC's probably have all sorts of clauses where they get their money back + dividends + their preferred stock in a buyout, further diluting you.

Chances are the strike price for purchasing your options has gone up in the last 4 years.

Also, the investors might want to bail and get their money out, selling the company at a lower price than if they had waited. Or a competitor could come along and wipe out your growth, killing the potential value of the company.

Or nothing could happen. The company could make nice profit and just exist, seemingly forever, never selling. You'll wake up one day 5 years from now, no further to the fat bank account than you are now, and wonder what happened.

Many things can happen that are outside of your control to these stock options that are keeping you there. The only thing you really have control over is whether to stay or not.

It sounds like you are asking for permission to quit. Money is a promise of future enjoyment. Are you willing to get chewed out for a future payoff? I am in a similar situation except without much equity in the company and I am about to give notice as soon as I get a contract lined up.

I'd suggest creating your own startup - and work on it in the evenings, weekends or whenever you might have a few hours. Then just deal with the crap until your startup gets rolling - and maybe by then your stock will come through too :)

ha ha. Ok, I'll do that. :)

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