[throwaabolt]

I am one of those let go today. It's especially bad, because they seem to have messed up the invite templates. I received one to the Town Hall meeting, even before Majus letter was published, only to get the invitation cancelled and receive and invitation to "Bolt Restructuring". What an emotional rollercoaster. Extremely anxious about the future, as this is my first time being laid off, especially in the current market.

EDIT: I am doubly screwed because I signed up for the employee stock option loan program... and I'm not sure what the bank will want from me now that the stock price has tanked.

[anon_123g987]

From user throwaabolt's profile page:

"troll account. didn't actually get laid off from bold. curious to see how long it takes HN to realize this."

[dang]

We've banned throwaabolt and also what looks to be that user's main account.

To answer the question, it took HN only a few minutes for some users to realize this, but 2 hours for me to find out about it. Most of that time, an email was sitting in the inbox waiting. Thank you for pointing this out, and also to the user who emailed, since otherwise I wouldn't have seen this. We rely on the community to route info to us. Fortunately HN has a lot of users who care about the quality of the site.

All: if you notice anything weird, dodgy, or otherwise degrading of quality, we always appreciate a heads-up at [e-mail]. HN admins are mostly a clearinghouse for things that the community notices, so this really is a shared effort.

[LilBytes]

@dang can we see if this is true, unsure if we record history. Either anon_123g987 or throwaabolt is lying here.

throwaabolt's profile account is now:

"ex-employee of bolt. ready to tackle new challenges, in particular in the fintech or insurtech areas."

I don't know what to believe. throwaabolt's futher messages:

"thank you. can my wife's boyfriend contact you too? he is part of the layoff as well."

[dang]

It's true. We've banned throwaabolt and also what looks to be that user's main account.

[LilBytes]

Thank you.

[wly_cdgr]

False. Why would you claim this?

[dang]

throwaabolt changed the profile after the GP was posted. We've banned the account now, as well as what looks like their main account.

[wly_cdgr]

Huh! What a weird way to troll

[throwaabolt]

?

what?

[dang]

We've banned this account, and the main account associated with it, for trolling. (Explained in the sibling replies: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31512443).

Please don't create accounts to do this.

[stu2b50]

According to Ryan Brewslow,

> There IS risk to the employee; they now have a real loan outstanding and 100% personal recourse, so if the common stock becomes less than exercise price, their personal assets are on the hook

So I suppose the bank will be after your personal assets?

[onlyrealcuzzo]

It's usually quite rare for startups to offer good equity.

HOPEFULLY this loan isn't a lot more than OP's salary. And theoretically, they can be sold for a decent percentage of the principal.

[ta988]

Ain't gonna happen they will be worthless.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

They shouldn't be worthless yet. And OP should be able to sell them.

[respondo2134]

I work at Bold Commerce and we have some open positions for software devs; take a day or two to process and then take a look. I never realy figured out how so any companies were all going to "own federated checkout" and we are definitely in a different space, though a comparable size to Bolt.

[DevToRecruiter]

I'm sorry you're going through this. I don't know what your position is but I may be able to help you with the "finding a new job" part of your anxiety. Please feel free to reach out to me on twitter @devetorecruiter. Good luck with everything!

[throwaabolt]

thank you. can my wife's boyfriend contact you too? he is part of the layoff as well.

[1-more]

Did you cosign his loans for early exercise too? Brutal.

In all seriousness good luck going forward.

[mizzao]

How does this "wife's boyfriend" thing work?

[t3rabytes]

lol the throwaway is 100% a troll, and had it not been for the "i'm a troll" description that was removed from their profile, this is what proves it

[throwaabolt]

We live seprated already and have our own lifes (and boyfriends, at least for her) but the divorce has not been finalized yet and so she technically is still my wife.

[sibeliuss]

I'm sorry to hear this. Did they offer severance pay?

[axg11]

You would be doing a public good if you post (publicly) the terms of that loan and any associated (anonymous) documents. Please consider it.

[cr3ative]

Sorry to hear this, I hope everything works out for you.

[nso95]

best of luck my friend