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Comment by spydertennis | Hacker News Reader

Oops, the information on that page is outdated. Greg is a co-founder of WakeMate.

Edit: as per swombat's comment below changed "was" to "is"

There's no such thing as "was a cofounder". Once you're a cofounder, you always are, even if you're kicked out of your company or leave for any reason. Steve Jobs was still cofounder of Apple when he was kicked out of it.

Not entirely true. There are many cases where someone joins the business but then leaves after a couple months, before any of their equity even vests.

Founding a company is an act. Those who found a company are its founders. It can't be undone.

No.. having founded a company is a decision made and re-made by historians.

Steve Case was VP of Marketing when AOL was founded as Quantum Computer Services. As his role grew, early employees left, and time passed, he became the co-founder.

I thought it was wakemate which "was".

What about the reverse? If one co-founder leaves, does that make you “founder” and not co-founder?

I've been wondering this as this is exactly what happened to me and I'm never sure how to introduce myself!

In my mind "co-founder" is a type of founder. I don't think you are doing anything wrong by calling yourself founder.

Don't you mean: Steve Jobs IS still cofounder of Apple when he was kicked out of it. ;)

Kind of like "former alumnus?" I'm trying to figure out how one can do that transition...

You can have your degree stripped from you

Oh, no question.

But I wonder if that makes you a former alumnus. Being an alumnus doesn't require a degree, does it?

If you really want to be pedantic, if he is a cofounder, he was a cofounder too. As Mitch Hedberg said, "I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to too"

He doesn't any more.

Hmmm. Just in case I am being misunderstood - I'm not sad because he stopped doing drugs. I'm sad because the reason he stopped doing drugs was because he died of a heroin overdose.

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