| Yes I had shares in the company. Technically, there were two companies: - a holding where the cofounders owned shares as of 52, 30, 12 and 6 percent. This company had no business activity and no employee. I owned 6 percent of its 100K capital;
- a startup which was 100% owned by the holding, sharing the same CEO. I was employee and paid by this company (well, "paid"…). I had a vote decision in the holding, not the startup.
And for some reason I had a reason not to work anymore for the startup (including being fired when we think about it), I would have to sell my shares. If you want to evict someone, this is a great system. Also, the 12% shares were held by the spouse/partner of the CEO, creating a 50/50 balance which let all the power in his hands, whatever the scenario is. That is a reason why fighting was useless. And making a viable platform was more a chance for us to get funded, to have an external observer who could eventually rectify the power balance. |
And this even without getting into having CEO girlfriend in the mix. Man, the time-proven standard practice to not have GF/relatives/etc... in the chain of command of their BF/relative/etc.. exists for the reason.