[anmol]

Good comments overall. One insight here is to put yourself in their shoes to understand how to negotiate the best outcome. Most people don't rationalize themselves as mean or psychotic - there is probably some rationalizing behind the decision. E.g. diamondage is not a great engineer and we need to clean up the cap table before we increase the valuation because we can hire someone amazing.

To be clear, I'm not saying that's right or true. But assuming that's their position, does it change anything about your negotiation strategy?

[diamondage]

Yeah this is the not-easy but emotionally intelligent thing to do. I think I can trace it back to a fight with the lead developer who then skipped me and talked directly to them. There is a chance I can resolve the situation at the root if I can talk directly with them about this situation, particularly as since then, said engineer has not met his promised targets (six months overdue on an initial claim of 1 month). But this is only speculation.