| I worked in a similar situation, though with a group of people who wanted to form an arts venue in the largest city in my state (I'm in the midwest). When I agreed to come on (after leaving teaching), there was promise of salary. The salary never materialized, and so I was putting in 80-100 hours of free labor per week, and paying for my own expenses while doing so. Meanwhile, the project ballooned from $250k to $2.7mil, and our investor (who is one of only 2 or 3 people I've ever actively disliked) bailed when he realized that the fellow I worked for was trying to extract quite a bit of money out of him. I left after 7 months, and will never be reimbursed for the 2,000+ hours I put into reading, researching, writing, and networking. They still have exactly no money. This isn't exactly analogous, but similar enough. Sometimes the boat's going to sink (to use your captain metaphor). Given that you don't own part of the company, and that your employers seem to think of you as replaceable, your obligation is minimal. The fact that they're looking at changing what they do complete is not an encouraging sign, as it's very difficult to shift back from those changes. Were I in your shoes, I'd quit and would be reaching back out to the startups who reached out to me, as well as to others that seem like good places to work. I would make it clear to my employers why I was quitting (in business, rather than personal, terms), and would hope that such honesty helps them to survive, or at least to make better decisions in the future. This approach has worked well for me in the past, as it lets me maintain personal relationships (and even professional relationships) while extricating myself from situations neatly and efficiently. |