"This fear of being viewed as a startup enemy also is why none of the early Uber investors we spoke with would allow us to publish their names."
What is a "startup enemy" and how does wanting to recoup some of your investment make you one?
What is a "startup enemy" and how does wanting to recoup some of your investment make you one?
The same is true of investors. A legal battle with a company you invested in might close off access to future deals.
Now, a reasonable person might evaluate the facts of the case if they have time...but not everyone has the time and/or would agree that they should sue Uber.
It is alot like having worked on a porn site I think. Some people would go "Oh, cool, you worked on a big project there that had the kind of scale we hope to achieve."
Others would look at it and drop your resume directly into the trashbin.
I suspect there is a similar effect on VC/Angel access to startups that are popular enough to have a bidding war like Uber.
I mean, is this really the case though? Any reasonable employer I know of would say, "Oh, well, that's unfortunate, but your business", and move on.
I think this repeated meme is just a good way to keep workers in their place.
However after the first job, nobody cares because you've proven yourself not to purposeful "trouble maker", and most likely makes the company look bad instead.
Markets are a fickle beast...
She has a job in a different industry now and makes significantly less [like 50%]. She doesn't think she'll be able to retire before 70 because of it.
Admittedly, the industry was very small and incestuous and it isn't like Tech where labor holds alot of power at present.
I also have a family friend who is an idiot and did something similar for stupid reasons [it turns out he signed paperwork he thought he never had, didn't keep copies]. He ended up in a government job eventually but he spent a couple years on welfare because he didn't believe my parents when they told him no one would hire him.
It really has an impact, at least anecdotal. It is possible I'm unusual in having close relationships with 2 people who had this happen and its much rarer in the general population.
Was it a noncompete?
I've gotten that clause myself in an employee agreement. The company wanted me to sign and they said their lawyers "wouldn't let them" change it.
He should have tried [or not done what he did]. However, he made a mistake and paid for it.
(I'm not a big fan of him, personally, but at least he let the rest of us see how incredibly offended VCs get when you don't roll over and play dead.)
Doesn't this reduce every early investment in a startup into a binary thing? You either lose it all, or hit a home run. Unless you pull a Groupon and exit everyone before the IPO.
And no, I don't think it does.