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by BhavdeepSethi 321 days ago
I went through an acquisition very early in my career, and for the longest time I believed it was the best outcome for everyone. Over time, I realized that my naive belief was purely due to the founders going way above and beyond to make sure each and every employee (including folks doing just data entry) got a good outcome (accelerated vesting, significant equity in new company, top of the band pay, etc.). It made me realize that if you ever want to work at a start up, bet on the founder, rather the company. Even with mediocre outcomes, you'll end up ahead in the long run compared to folks who're just looking out for themselves.
2 comments
rhyperior 321 days ago
They must have had a strong position from which to negotiate those favorable terms, in addition to the experience to know to do so, and the integrity to actually do it. The type of people you should follow.
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BhavdeepSethi 321 days ago
I don't believe they did. This acquisition was by Flipkart, the poster child startup in India, who had a very high bar for hiring. They wanted to interview the non-founders to make sure they met the standard. The founders said you get all or you get none. To be fair, it was a small team of 6-8 employees, so I doubt Flipkart cared. :)
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hiAndrewQuinn 321 days ago
Wait, what are the employee protections like in India that such a deal is enforceable? Why couldn't Flipkart just take them and then fire them a few weeks/months later?
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Henchman21 321 days ago
I genuinely wonder how people like yourself sleep at night.
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GreenWatermelon 320 days ago
I don't think hiAndrewQuinn was implying that they'd do so, rather, they (appropriately) assume that a for-profit would try to loophole their way out of any obligation, so they wanted to know how exactly the employees were protected.
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neilv 321 days ago
> due to the founders going way above and beyond to make sure each and every employee (including folks doing just data entry) got a good outcome (accelerated vesting, significant equity in new company, top of the band pay, etc.)

Commendable of them. That should be normal decency by leaders. I wonder how common it is.

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