Startups Startup dream turned to nightmare. Partners tried to zuckerberg me after getting accepted into YC |
- Startup dream turned to nightmare. Partners tried to zuckerberg me after getting accepted into YC
- Where to sell intellectual property - asset deal for avoiding bankruptcy
- Director of operations at a tech start up (salary options)
- Has anyone moved from corporate to startup? I’m in that position now and I’m scared to make the leap.
- Is and edTech startup worth it?
- Is it always necessary to "hone in" on a target audience?
- What’s supply chain like at a startup?
- Recruiting a CEO. Has anyone done it before? What is the best way to approach someone that you have in mind?
- How much $ to raise, how much equity to give away?
- B2C Marketing
- Use Cases
- Hey, what's wrong?
- How to reduce 'leakage' from a marketplace platform?
| Startup dream turned to nightmare. Partners tried to zuckerberg me after getting accepted into YC Posted: 28 May 2021 10:46 AM PDT TLDR; lifelong friend and partner backstabbed me and forced me to step out after the first indicative of a very successful business. :( Hey guys, I was living the startup dream and in 24 hours It all went overboard. Until yesterday I was the CTO of a successful startup. My co-founder and lifelong friend came up with the idea a year and a half ago and I agreed to build the MVP. It took me around 6 months and had to quit my job because i thought there was a nice opportunity to make a solid product and business, my first venture. When I finished the MVP my new partner and I negotiated percentages and agreed on doing 50/50 as he would do CEO work (we fought about majority but we agreed on this because we thought no job was more important than the other). My cofounder suggested bringing in a COO shortly after, I agreed to do so since he had experience and was clearly talented, we would give him 10% ( I massively fucked up here). We constituted the company with these percentages. Things kept going well, we gained some traction and increased our revenue. We put together a team and pulled version 2 of the product which a week ago got us into the YC batch. My founders inflated our revenue and exaggerated our churn and somehow managed to lie through the diligence process ( I was never ok with this but whatever) My CEO had financial problems and had a full time job at Google as a sales rep. I never complained because he was pulling his work load. We as founders were m paying ourselves a small amount just to get us going and keep hiring more devs , customer support and sales reps instead. YC people were insistent in him quitting so it was sort of a requirement to get in, he agreed. We get accepted and he calls me on to a meeting with the other founder just 2 days ago and essentially tells me that in order for him to quit google and be fully committed to our company he thought he deserved more equity so that he could feel like he's valued here. CEO and COO proceeded to tell me that at that point i was less valuable than them and how my skills and expertise where subpar to theirs so I didn't deserve the equity I had. I had previously talked with my COO about his inconformity with his stock and thought about being generous and giving him 6% of my stock as his performance had been outstanding. My CEO then somehow "convinced" our COO to give him the 6% I had just agreed to give him so he could "feel happy". I was baffled by the ease he gave him his stock I had just given him. Something was up. CEO now had 51% They wanted me to sign a stock transfer contract on the spot to which i rightfully declined. I wanted legal counsel. My CEO got defensive and threatened he wouldn't leave google and would pull YC funding. I stood up and left. Later that night I was revoked access from all repos, accounts and relevant tech permissions from the company. I was ignored and was told by my CEO we would talk tomorrow about it. I arrived very early at the office as I was worried about the situation and found my founders taking to team leaders in a room. I entered the meeting I wasn't invited to and found out I was being trash talked about my leadership abilities which were complete bs. The product my dev team and I built had just gotten us into YC. My CEO and COO started telling everyone about how I hadn't pulled my load and how company success was truly because of them. They told everyone that they deserved more equity and that I had to forfeit 25% so that equity would be left at 60/20/20. I looked over at my employees and they were scared to say anything even though I saw in their expressions they knew this was wrong. Arbitrary numbers being thrown around with no chance to negotiate and no previous communication with concerns about my performance. We would be signing that day the new cap table and there was nothing I could do apparently. CEO promised everyone we would take this to the moon and that he would "make it happen" now that he was full time. They pressured me into signing that same day, I tried to reason with them about the unfairness of the situation and how there was no justification to what was being done with no avail. Reason was no match for sociopathic behavior. I contacted my lawyers and advisors and was told to not sign anything of course. I told my founders later that day that I would not be signing anything and that I would be taking legal steps for stock purchase on whatever end or company dissolution, whatever my legal team sees fit. These people thought they could step over me and were willing to kick out a lifelong friend and cofounder and labeling me as "egocentric and unhumble" and that I was willing to put the company at risk because I didn't want to give away my stock. Luckily I know all my employees are very smart so they know CEO was proyecting and now they're stuck with a sociopath. I wrote to the YC partners that accepted us about the whole ordeal because I don't think more people like this should be running the tech industry. I communicated to them about the lying and the backstabbing done by the founders and how I had intention of taking legal action. I don't make products for the money, I make them to help people and i think this is what got us into YC. A superior product which focuses on UX. I communicated this vision and mission with my founders but it seems they had alternative motives from the very beginning. I got played. I wanted to share this story because I think it's a very clear indicative on the type of people you'll run into and how you should be careful when picking your partners. I am happy about the experience as I was capable of building something which got us to a team of 25 people and into YC. If I can do it once I can do it again I feel no resentment whatsoever. I was happy i stoop up and defended my honor and knew that even if I had managed to keep my 45% I would be working together with a sociopathic CEO with complexes and would risk my mental health. I truly feel sorry for him as he picked money over a lifelong friend and this sort of behavior is most likely going to lead him towards misery, money or no money. I felt wrong about writing to YC but my advisors told me to do so as these people deserve to be called out so that this type of behavior is not allowed to be reinforced in any way. I hope YC takes necessary action and kicks them from the batch but that's up to them now. Thanks for reading and have a great day! [link] [comments]  |
| Where to sell intellectual property - asset deal for avoiding bankruptcy Posted: 29 May 2021 12:58 AM PDT Long story short, I want to liquidate an asset. Short story long, the previous project was a 90% finished software, I cannot find the cash to finish it properly (not only pay four devs, but also proper marketing). Also I have some problems, my personal life calls for cash now, immediately (I put all my savings into the company). Cannot wait for the product to finish regular. Very sad but this is (business) life. Any recommendations how to proceed?
Thanks for your help. I am a little bit desperate, because I am broke af and need the cash. The problem I have, I cannot find a freelance project, since no one wants to hire a failed CEO obviously, or whatever, does not matter, I need cash. And when you need cash, you make mistakes. I want to avoid this. I appreciate your answers. [link] [comments]  |
| Director of operations at a tech start up (salary options) Posted: 28 May 2021 06:02 AM PDT Interviewing with a tech start up that needs someone to lead charge on general operations. I have experience in the industry and operations of the same industry, focusing on sales at my past company. Salary options... - going to ask for $75k Other options include stakes in the company when they sell, future stocks, or commission as I lead charge on their sales initiatives.. I'm comfortable with commission, but not super experienced with stakes or stocks. Any advice as I research my options? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 12:22 PM PDT I have a nice cushion-y corporate job with great benefits and schedule, but I'm young and ready for the next challenge. I recently got an offer at a 22-person startup. I'd be making more money with more responsibilities and longer hours. I'm having a hard time leaving the luxury of corporate structure and security. Im scared, but a good scared because I know it'll be a great growth opportunity. Any advice for taking this leap into the startup world? [link] [comments]  |
| Is and edTech startup worth it? Posted: 28 May 2021 05:01 AM PDT Hey, I'm nearly 18 and for the past year I have been working on an edTech startup aimed at high school students. It's basically a web app which allows students to share revision notes etc. I started it because while in high school I spotted that it was hard for a lot of people to find quality notes online. As of today it has around 10k MAU (4k registered) and 20 paying customers (around $200 MRR). This is obviously a very low conversion rate. The problem is that students do find the website useful but they just don't have their own money/cards to pay for the premium features. I'm guessing this isn't a problem with only my startup but pretty much all of edTech. I'm just worried that even if I manage to make this successful it won't have a high valuation just because of the low number of paying customers. Because of this I'm wondering whether it's worth to purse this startup further. Obviously working on it comes with certain sacrifices. In september I'm going to by starting my second year at university (first year was online and from home) and e.g. I won't have the time to participate in a lot of societies. I love startups and this is what I would like to do after university but I'm just unsure whether my time is best used by working on an edTech rather than e.g. participating in societies and meeting new people. Also, I'm a solo founder simply because I don't really know any people. So I'm just afraid that if I focus on my startup I won't meet anyone to work with on my next startup. What would you recommend? Thank you :) [link] [comments]  |
| Is it always necessary to "hone in" on a target audience? Posted: 28 May 2021 01:05 PM PDT A common theme I'm seeing in the initial stages of a startup is people suggesting that you should identify your "target audience" as a specific demographic , i.e. college students, musicians, soccer moms, but I'm not seeing why this is necessary in every situation. While it's always important to validate your idea, wouldn't there be some startup ideas that, by design, aim to target everyone? For example, an all-purpose social media app like Facebook or Instagram, or a food delivery service like UberEats. Yeah, these companies may be more popular among certain demographics, but are the companies actually aiming to target specific demographics? Wouldn't some ideas be better off targeting everyone? [link] [comments]  |
| What’s supply chain like at a startup? Posted: 28 May 2021 11:24 AM PDT Recently got an offer to work at a robotics startup. Their supply chain processes are pretty much non existent which is why they're bringing me aboard. I currently have 2 years of defense supply chain experience. What's supply chain like at a startup? Any advice for what I should expect or whether this would be a beneficial experience? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 03:09 PM PDT Hello. I came up with this product concept as part of my capstone project for my graduate business plan. We brought on a full time designer as a founding partner after I showed him our very promising market research. We built a working prototype together, which our first users absolutely love. Although I have been effective at leading this project thus far, I've been having this feeling recently that I can't do it all on my own. There's too much work to be done between raising funds, managing product development, and executing our fairly radical marketing/ brand awareness plan. It's been pretty cool being the big ol' CEO guy in the past but the brand building is something I'm much more passionate about. I connected with an alumni from my program on LinkedIn that seems like he would be the perfect fit, given that he has been a successful entrepreneur in our industry and has been through the fundraising process before. My question is, how do I approach him? Do I message him asking just to chat given that we're in similar industries, or should I be direct and tell him that we're looking to recruit a CEO? It's slightly complicated because our technology we're building would be an indirect competitor of his current business that he owns. Also, how much ownership would a recruited non-founder CEO expect? [link] [comments]  |
| How much $ to raise, how much equity to give away? Posted: 28 May 2021 10:57 AM PDT My company is perhaps 1-2 months away from launching software that will start generating revenue. Company is currently boot strapped via revenue from affiliate marketing websites. After we get off the ground provided everything is smooth sailing, our need for capital might diminish where our financial mindset switches from short term to long term. Right now we think we only need $250k to cover the next year of expenses but we are confident we can raise over 1M based on interest. We are thinking if we have 1M in the bank then we can really step on the gas and if we do focus on just 250k to start, we might want that 1M later on. My initial thoughts were to do something like 250k for 10% and then once we had both proof of concept and good sales numbers, something like 1M for another 10%. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 08:21 AM PDT Hi, would appreciate people's views on the most effective channel for B2C marketing. We have just over 1k followers on Insta but that is translating into pretty much zero downloads even after holding a competition for an electric scooter. We are a UK-centric app that pays people to watch branded content. We are having to advertise on platforms that don't pay people to watch adverts.... We are pretty active on LinkedIn though that is obviously more for the B2B element (acquiring companies who want to advertise on our platform). [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 02:46 AM PDT Hey all! I work in a seed funded startup, in the burgeoning Sales team. As someone on the front line, who has most contact with prospects and customers, I often come across new use cases for our technology in these discussions. I am looking for best practices that I can use to share these potential use cases with my Product, Ops, Dev, etc, teams in order to be able to explore the viability. Are there any particular tools that you guys use or recommend? If it's just a matter of a shared doc, what are the key headings I should input that these tech-oriented folks would need to use in their assessment? Many thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 28 May 2021 03:00 AM PDT This is /r/startups emotional support thread. There will be no problem-solving here, no judgement, no networking, no advice. We're here to be heard, be understood, and be told that it'll be okay, that whatever happens, we care. Still, be tactful and classy in how you vent your feelings and share your frustrations. Act in a mature manner. This is meant to be a safe place to support emotional and physical health and there is a zero tolerance policy in effect. Be kind. Please report any conduct that is in violation of that key tenet. Howdy there. Did you have a rough week? It's certainly been a rough year. Did you get in an argument? Have a problem? Tell me about it. What's wrong?[link] [comments]  |
| How to reduce 'leakage' from a marketplace platform? Posted: 27 May 2021 08:45 PM PDT Hi all, Hope everyone is doing well! I am currently working on a business idea and was hoping to get some advice from others on this sub that might have experience in the space or general ideas. The idea I am working on is essentially a peer-to-peer marketplace platform that connects people hoping to learn a new skill with those willing to teach it. The method of monetization would be a commission on the seller side (similar to Upwork, Fiverr, Airbnb, etc.). One of the biggest risks that I've identified with starting something like this is app 'leakage' -- essentially the idea that people will go off-app to do the transaction since that would be saving them money. In my mind, the only long-term sustainable way to prevent against this is to make the platform competitive enough and providing enough value that people feel it is worth it to continue booking through the app vs. the instructor and learner messaging directly. That being said, I'm not quite sure how to do it. Some ideas I have are: - Incentivize people to book through the app by offering rewards/gamification after hitting certain volume (# lessons) - Incentivize people to book multiple sessions upfront by offering volume-based booking discounts - Disincentivize off-app coordination by banning teachers that use the app to find learners but go off app for payment (although this would be hard to catch without teachers feeling like we are invading their privacy, I imagine) What are your thoughts on the above ideas? Are there any ways to reduce app leakage that might work better or that I am missing? Thank you for the help! [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Startups - Rapid Growth and Innovation is in Our Very Nature!. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment