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Your CEO, CFO, and COO are either completely ignorant of finances, or are cold-hearted jerks. It is simple and easy to grant you options (or even founder shares, although that would be unusual) in an S-corp right now (if you'd said LLC, then there would be a case to be made that they didn't want to issue equity until they converted to a C-corp, which is expensive - but it still means they're selfish and/or dumb for doing it that way). Once you've got revenue, your company value is materially higher, and they can no longer easily transfer you shares (since you have to pay taxes based on the value of the shares). And any options they grant you must have a strike price of the current fair market value, which will be provably higher if the company has gone from no revenue to some revenue, which just takes money out of your pocket for no good reason. I generally go by Hanlon's razor: "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." With the huge caveat that I've only heard your side of the story, it sounds like your cofounders are well meaning, drunk with power, and ignorant of how to do their jobs. Find a new job first, then tell them you're leaving. If they ask nicely and your new employer doesn't mind, you might give them 4 weeks. But most employees err in the direction of too much loyalty to their last job, so resist the urges to extend further, do consulting, or otherwise fail to break the bond.
You are probably doing the founders of this company a huge favor. They cannot run a successful company the way they're running this one. Giving them the wakeup call they need - politely, reasonably, and professionally, by departing gracefully - will leave them with enough runway to rethink their strategy and could save their endeavor. And it's definitely the right thing for you. |