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Comment by basisword | Hacker News Reader

1. Nobody can promise to never sell. If you believe that you’re a fool. They held out longer than most.

2. Nobody is entitled to equity. You chose to take the job knowing you weren’t getting any. Complaining about it now is idiotic. I see similar stories on HN from time to time about employees not getting equity or anything out of an acquisition. I get the feeling it’s the “we’re a team/family” vibe that causes this. People need to wake up and remember they’re simply being paid to do a job for somebody else. You’re not all best friends. If you want to be rich, take the risk and start your own company.

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I am willing to take less money and comp to work for a person and mission I consider to be idealistic.

If this person then turns their back on that for a huge immediate payout, I can sort of understand it, but it still pisses me off.

spamming email hardly seems like a purely altruistic mission

That’s a very reductionist argument. Most of the good newsletters that I read are using MC, and one of the big reasons is that they’re always opt-in and one click unsubscribe.

I very much doubt they generate a lot of spam.

Sometimes, though, companies outright lie to you.

I have been through several acquisitions, as well as working at a firm promising significant profit sharing, then getting fucked over after they actively lie to you.

FFS when Lockheed acquired us, the c-suite got awesome money, but every other employee was fucked over.

People are douchebags during acquisitions.

Why would you rely on a promise in the scenario? If it’s not contractual it’s not real.

Maybe you don't have the money for a lawyer to go over the contract looking for loopholes.

bang on - I assume these people collected a monthly pay packet? If so, what is the best problem? Such naive entitlement.

Best I can figure out is that people feel like they had a moral right to sharing in the founders windfall / feel harmed by the founders having a windfall, and feel they were promised this harm would not come to them.

I understand it feels shitty, but I don't think they have a valid complaint. I certainly don't think we should make a universal law "all companies should offer equity compensation".

In most sectors it wouldn't even cross (low-level) employees' minds!

If you have no equity in a business, I'm not sure why the promise to sell/not to sell is even relevant. If it was some charity/non-profit or other group with a mission to make the world a better place, I could understand it. But why an employee of an email marketing business with no-equity would care is beyond me.

> 1. Nobody can promise to never sell.

It could be enforced by the contract.

You could also write a contract that says that in the event of a sale, every previous employee is given equity retrospectively in proportion to how many years they were employed.

Lots of ways.

Yeah that was my point, unless it’s contractual you can’t rely on it.

> 1. Nobody can promise to never sell. If you believe that you’re a fool. They held out longer than most.

I don't think this "nihilism-ish" view is healthy. Otherwise, you might as well just argue nobody can promise anything, and anyone who believes any promise is a fool.

> nobody can promise anything, and anyone who believes any promise is a fool.

IDK, can people ever really promise something in perpetuity? People and circumstances change over a lifetime. To me it is healthier and more realistic to understand this.

I wouldn't say anyone who believes a promise is a fool, though. I would say to believe a promise is to believe it that the person is sincere in their intent, and that they will make a strong effort to continue that intent going forward. But to believe that person can actually stop time and guarantee to never change is not realistic to me.

Note that I'm speaking cosmically here. In the world of business, I would say it always eventually comes down to contracts and money. Those are what business is about at its core, and to expect otherwise is madness.

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