[mritchie712]

he'd already be out if it was simple to force him out

[lenerdenator]

Let this be a lesson to anyone investing in a startup: don't give any cash unless there's real corporate governance.

[em-bee]

but the opposite is true too: don't take money from investors unless they let you keep control of your company. for every case like this there are probably a dozen cases where investors took control of a company and ruined it for the sake of making money.

[pclmulqdq]

How did they "ruin" a company if that company made money?

[diggan]

Not all humans are driven by the same motivations.

[pclmulqdq]

Presumably if you as a founder are not driven by a desire to make money and your investors are, you 100% should be ousted. This is the principal-agent problem at work.

[diggan]

> Presumably if you as a founder are not driven by a desire to make money and your investors are, you 100% should be ousted

Presumably, the real world is a bit more nuanced than that.

There is no reason why you cannot run a company for different motivations than "get as rich as possible" while still accepting investments from people whose sole motivation is "get as rich as possible". While difficult, it is possible to align people even when they have different motivations.

[toomuchtodo]

Same with trading your time for stock options (that you hope are eventually negotiable shares); trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets.

[SJC_Hacker]

Dilution is a real problem. If they want you to act like a Founder, you should have protected equity like one.