[tptacek]

He laid off half his staff.

Then he laid off half his staff again.

He's spending 20 hours a week on the phone with irate creditors he's trying to renege on.

His investors are saying they're going to ruin him.

He laid off half his staff again.

He's being sued 6 times over.

One of his creditors is physically stalking him.

The press is writing stories calling him a fraud.

He hasn't slept in six months.

His customers aren't paying.

And he's pissed that his staff is accepting other job offers? Because he "made" them?

I helped kill a startup in 2001 too. I didn't tell myself I had done a favor for the people I brought along for the ride.

I mean whatever, I'm being a drama queen about this. I just hate the meme that startup employees owe founders anything. Most of them have no idea what they're getting into, and founders like it that way.

[ibsulon]

Look at that "hasn't slept in six months" thing again. This tends to play on someone's emotions quite heavily.

To be fair, it is quite possible that in a media-based startup like a newspaper, the company did make these people a star. However, I don't think I'm seeing anger as much as "oh shit, what do we do now?"

[jasonmcalacanis]

I think you've got it right. There were people who were nobodies who we hired out of college and made into brands who jumped ship at the first sign of trouble. That sucked, but it's too be expected. There were many others who stayed and fought the good fight.

Imagine having a print magazine about the dotcom industry in 2000 that was 300 pages.... and then the dotcom crash happens and 98% of your revenue goes away while 90% of the companies you cover go away.

It was brutal to say the least.... but it made me into a killer. :-)

[tptacek]

The story I'm quoting happened years ago. I think he slept OK before he wrote that.

[chiffonade]

> I didn't tell myself I had done a favor

Trust me, if you weren't a delusional prick or egotist, nobody blames you personally for failure. Failure happens, it's a startup.

The problem is that a high percentage of people who actually have the balls to helm a startup are delusional egotists.