stevirusky
New member
I really need some advice on my current work situation, which is unfortunately a very long story, so I apologize and ask you bear with me. Everyone in my life is either too close to the problem (with the risk of having a special interest), or not knowledgeable enough in this arena to give very credible advice.
I’ve been dealing with an abusive partner/boss in a startup for years, which I have sacrificed a lot to get into, for a very real but distance promise of a big payout, and I think that is slipping away now...
Today:
I work for a tech startup, with one other person, our CEO, who is a serial entrepreneur. Our company is somewhat tight on cash (I estimate our runway at 7 months), and we are really just chasing after a large licensing deals for our technology. After 2 years of chasing 3 customers, one has recently committed and paid significant money in Quality Assurance testing of our tech (novel safety product) and is very close to signing the next phase of the commercialization partnership – production planning. During this phase a large down-payment of royalties would come in and a design licensing and royalties contract would be finalized. The client was hoping to hit market ASAP, targeting March 1, 2018 only two months ago. Just today I found out they will not be moving forward into this next phase until all the testing is complete, which is in 60 days. Some complications in the Quality Assurance testing has shaken their confidence and they want to see it through to the end which takes 60 days, instead of taking our previous results as assurance to move forward. I am confident our tech can pass all tests, and it is just a matter of tweaking some parameters to reach the optimal tradeoffs. When I told the CEO of this 60 day delay in the next phase and our next paycheck from the client, he got very quiet (which is unusual) and he said this is very unfortunate and he has to really think about if this is worth his time, and that maybe I should start looking for a fall back job sooner rather than later. I told him it also isn’t worth my time for much longer, and we need to meet to discuss the reality of the situation soon (implying he needs to compensate me better). He said there isn’t much to discuss, and we have very little money left (he has always hid the money from me). As usual, he acted very frustrated and cut the call.
My CEO:
~60 years old, very experienced in a different industry, having started 6 companies, and taken one public (he netted ~$10M). But all this was completely unrelated industries to our current tech and startup. He made most of his money about ten years ago – and has invested most of it in a nice house. Since then his last few companies have failed and he hasn’t even had a salary in a few years. He has told me personally he is not very liquid and is trying to sell his house and downsize, and lives a very frugal lifestyle (always taking public transit or his beat up 20 year old truck, etc).
His personality is very conservative or old school – aggressive, discriminatory, and unorganized… always talking about “taking care of our own” and “doing what’s right”… which seem to always work out in his best interest above all. He is also extremely volatile, critical, impatient, sensitive – and dishonest. He is always playing an angle, and his story changes daily. He is also very spiteful and is extremely sensitive to criticism and “disrespect”. He is very hypocritical and never takes ownership or blame for anything. But to his credit he is very ambitious and hardworking (though not very efficient). He currently is involved with three companies (two others aside from mine) and he constantly spreads himself too thin with very little organization or planning. Basically he just stumbles through everything, dominating every conversation and expecting to be considered right all the time, because he has all the “experience”. I want to leave politics out of this, but the best way I could describe him is very much like Trump in his behavior and thinking.
The first company, our current company, was really just a whim of his, something he branched out to try well outside his background. For about 3 years now, he really only controls the bank account and gets final say on monetary matters, and he spends an average of 4 hours a week on it, conservatively.
Meanwhile, his second company is his main time commitment, which is actually in his industry, and he is CTO, buying into it 3 years ago. This company was founded by another guy who is the CEO 8 years ago, and they have finally come to the cusp of securing Series A Venture Capital funding, after getting some serious traction in sales in 2017 (>400k). The due diligence step will likely be finalized within a month, and then they will get the funds and hit the ground running. This has been a saving grace for my CEO because he has spent 3 years without pay, managing 5 engineers, and essentially running the company because the CEO/founder is very inexperienced and in most people’s opinion unfit to be a CEO. If they use this Series A funding properly, I am confident they would be >$100M company in
I’ve been dealing with an abusive partner/boss in a startup for years, which I have sacrificed a lot to get into, for a very real but distance promise of a big payout, and I think that is slipping away now...
Today:
I work for a tech startup, with one other person, our CEO, who is a serial entrepreneur. Our company is somewhat tight on cash (I estimate our runway at 7 months), and we are really just chasing after a large licensing deals for our technology. After 2 years of chasing 3 customers, one has recently committed and paid significant money in Quality Assurance testing of our tech (novel safety product) and is very close to signing the next phase of the commercialization partnership – production planning. During this phase a large down-payment of royalties would come in and a design licensing and royalties contract would be finalized. The client was hoping to hit market ASAP, targeting March 1, 2018 only two months ago. Just today I found out they will not be moving forward into this next phase until all the testing is complete, which is in 60 days. Some complications in the Quality Assurance testing has shaken their confidence and they want to see it through to the end which takes 60 days, instead of taking our previous results as assurance to move forward. I am confident our tech can pass all tests, and it is just a matter of tweaking some parameters to reach the optimal tradeoffs. When I told the CEO of this 60 day delay in the next phase and our next paycheck from the client, he got very quiet (which is unusual) and he said this is very unfortunate and he has to really think about if this is worth his time, and that maybe I should start looking for a fall back job sooner rather than later. I told him it also isn’t worth my time for much longer, and we need to meet to discuss the reality of the situation soon (implying he needs to compensate me better). He said there isn’t much to discuss, and we have very little money left (he has always hid the money from me). As usual, he acted very frustrated and cut the call.
My CEO:
~60 years old, very experienced in a different industry, having started 6 companies, and taken one public (he netted ~$10M). But all this was completely unrelated industries to our current tech and startup. He made most of his money about ten years ago – and has invested most of it in a nice house. Since then his last few companies have failed and he hasn’t even had a salary in a few years. He has told me personally he is not very liquid and is trying to sell his house and downsize, and lives a very frugal lifestyle (always taking public transit or his beat up 20 year old truck, etc).
His personality is very conservative or old school – aggressive, discriminatory, and unorganized… always talking about “taking care of our own” and “doing what’s right”… which seem to always work out in his best interest above all. He is also extremely volatile, critical, impatient, sensitive – and dishonest. He is always playing an angle, and his story changes daily. He is also very spiteful and is extremely sensitive to criticism and “disrespect”. He is very hypocritical and never takes ownership or blame for anything. But to his credit he is very ambitious and hardworking (though not very efficient). He currently is involved with three companies (two others aside from mine) and he constantly spreads himself too thin with very little organization or planning. Basically he just stumbles through everything, dominating every conversation and expecting to be considered right all the time, because he has all the “experience”. I want to leave politics out of this, but the best way I could describe him is very much like Trump in his behavior and thinking.
The first company, our current company, was really just a whim of his, something he branched out to try well outside his background. For about 3 years now, he really only controls the bank account and gets final say on monetary matters, and he spends an average of 4 hours a week on it, conservatively.
Meanwhile, his second company is his main time commitment, which is actually in his industry, and he is CTO, buying into it 3 years ago. This company was founded by another guy who is the CEO 8 years ago, and they have finally come to the cusp of securing Series A Venture Capital funding, after getting some serious traction in sales in 2017 (>400k). The due diligence step will likely be finalized within a month, and then they will get the funds and hit the ground running. This has been a saving grace for my CEO because he has spent 3 years without pay, managing 5 engineers, and essentially running the company because the CEO/founder is very inexperienced and in most people’s opinion unfit to be a CEO. If they use this Series A funding properly, I am confident they would be >$100M company in