> Avoid startups where the CEO does / has done nothing but sales.
I worked for a small company where this was the case. The owner had been a sales person for a large online industrial web registry and decided he could be a middleman selling the companies websites that integrated with said registry. The job was fine, my paycheck bounced a couple times, but that’s the worst of it until after.
In my exit interview I had agreed to do some side work for them until they restaffed, and completed a decent number of sites in a short timeframe.
Then I got sick and ended up having emergency surgery - loaded with prescription drugs and largely out it, I passed a project back to them which I had put maybe 50 hours into and completed short of populating the final verbiage/copy specifying as much.
I offered to take half of the agreement since I wouldn’t be completing it. I got a polite “we’ll talk about it when you’re feeling better” from my former PM, wonderful person.
It was handed to one of their most junior developers, and according to people I knew at the company he told the owner I had done almost nothing on the project, the pages were blank. They literally just needed copy I hadn’t received yet! The entire backend was done!
When I got better and tried to get everything straightened out, they literally ghosted me. Ignored my calls and emails. I’d put a load of time into the project and wanted something for my efforts. I'd worked there for over five years, it felt so disrespectful at the very least.
I started copying more and more people at the company in my emails. In the end however my efforts were fruitless.
About a month after this ordeal, a developer I had managed took a job with my new employer. I received a letter threatening to sue me for stealing their employees. I had nothing to do with it. Our corporate lawyer analyzed our contracts and said they didn’t have a leg to stand on. He sent them an official response and sure enough nothing came of it.
They went into bankruptcy restructuring within the year, they’re still in business but I suspect I lost my right to try to collect with that.
I know the guy personally to this day. He's a super nice guy, he was just very green at the time. If I recall they threw out everything I'd built and started over.
I worked for a small company where this was the case. The owner had been a sales person for a large online industrial web registry and decided he could be a middleman selling the companies websites that integrated with said registry. The job was fine, my paycheck bounced a couple times, but that’s the worst of it until after.
In my exit interview I had agreed to do some side work for them until they restaffed, and completed a decent number of sites in a short timeframe.
Then I got sick and ended up having emergency surgery - loaded with prescription drugs and largely out it, I passed a project back to them which I had put maybe 50 hours into and completed short of populating the final verbiage/copy specifying as much.
I offered to take half of the agreement since I wouldn’t be completing it. I got a polite “we’ll talk about it when you’re feeling better” from my former PM, wonderful person.
It was handed to one of their most junior developers, and according to people I knew at the company he told the owner I had done almost nothing on the project, the pages were blank. They literally just needed copy I hadn’t received yet! The entire backend was done!
When I got better and tried to get everything straightened out, they literally ghosted me. Ignored my calls and emails. I’d put a load of time into the project and wanted something for my efforts. I'd worked there for over five years, it felt so disrespectful at the very least.
I started copying more and more people at the company in my emails. In the end however my efforts were fruitless.
About a month after this ordeal, a developer I had managed took a job with my new employer. I received a letter threatening to sue me for stealing their employees. I had nothing to do with it. Our corporate lawyer analyzed our contracts and said they didn’t have a leg to stand on. He sent them an official response and sure enough nothing came of it.
They went into bankruptcy restructuring within the year, they’re still in business but I suspect I lost my right to try to collect with that.