freddyc

Add to that: never get separated so that you always have two earbuds! I see these quickly becoming an annoyance when you can find one earbud but for the life of you can't locate the other.

I was reading about tort reform once and stumbled upon NZ's ACC concept and was staggered by its effectiveness. I suspect its success is due in part to NZ's population size, but any system that ensures all accident related issues are covered AND for the most part renders the civil courts redundant for personal injury claims is pretty phenomenal. I don't have a source for this, but I also remember reading that the ACC is now one of NZ's largest institutional investors with something like $30bn under management!

That was the best $500 I ever spent! I had just wrapped up a job and spent the entire month traveling the US and parts of the Caribbean all for the price of one trans-continental flight. I was really hoping they'd repeat the offer the following year, but alas it was a one-time deal.

Exactly. We went through the 409A process for the first time a couple of years back and the valuation firm will typically take the preferred price (assuming there's been no secondary sales of common) and then apply discounts for lack of liquidity etc which gets you anywhere from 70-90% lower than the cost of preferred. The valuation firm usually comes in conservative and then you negotiate the FMV down. Assuming you haven't raised any more money, subsequent 409As are a lot quicker with a pretty light touch from the valuation firm.

I would say it wasn't until after the honeymoon phase of being new and excited wore off and I was given meaningful work to complete. It was a while ago now, but I think it was around the 6-8 week mark that I begun to really notice my workdays were a waste. Being a male I suppressed my feelings :) and the stress slowly built up over the next 6 months until my wife finally pointed out that it wasn't healthy and was impacting my relationship with her and others in my life.

I'm somewhat rare in the sense that I just quit vs lining up a new job first as we had a decent financial buffer, although if I'm being honest I suspect it was a case of jumping before being pushed as the stress was starting to impact my workplace relationships as well (especially with the CEO who was a chronic time-waster that loved pointless meetings).

I've said this elsewhere, but I think it's healthy to mix things up every few years - leaving this company ultimately worked out well for me as I quickly found a new opportunity that opened up doors I had never considered before. I don't know your exact circumstances, but if you have a significant other I think it's worth having a candid conversation with them and work out what the two of you need to live a balanced and fulfilled life. If the workplace stress is leaking into the rest of your life and you find work consuming an unreasonbale amount of your time, it's probably a good sign that it might be worth exploring other opportunities (in my experience, it's much harder to change an organization than it is to just move on). I realize this is different to the "roll-up-your-sleeves" advice elsewhere in this thread, but I view my career as a 40+ year marathon so I embrace the odd twist in the road every now and again.

I had a very similar experience where I actually dreaded going into the office because I knew my productivity would fall off a cliff. I slowly found myself accepting the day would be a loss with pointless meetings and other distractions, and got into the habit of doing my "head-down" work later once I got home. My wife pointed out how stupid that was (and frankly, unsustainable) so I pretty quickly jumped ship to a different company with a much better office design/remote work policy where I felt a lot more comfortable.

From personal experience 5 year goals/plans can help to give you a very broad outlook on where you want to get to, but be prepared to tear them up every 2-3 years ;)

When I look back to 2011 I'd never have guessed that I would be where I am, doing what I do, today. I'm confident I'll be able to say the same in 2021.

My parents grew up with the "one-company-for-life" mentality, but I'm a firm believer that it's good to mix things up every few years to keep yourself fresh and motivated. That's not to say you should abandon something that you're truly passionate about if you continue to derive long-term enjoyment from it, but rather be open and flexible to new opportunities as they may take you places you'd never imagine.

>"When I see a company describe its “no assholes” rule, I see a company inclined toward calling people assholes."

I've seen variations of this pop-up more-and-more over the last few years and from my experience it usually hides the insecurities/bad behavior of the founder(s) and management team. Too often the "no asshole/jerk" rule is really code for "anyone who doesn't agree with us" and results in very vanilla organizations with little diversity.

It looks like you're based in Europe, so be careful relying on any US-centric advice if that's the case. It pretty much goes without saying, but HN is not a proxy for proper legal advice from a local lawyer who understands the full fact set.

With that said, while you're unlikely to be liable for their costs given the unsigned term sheet (assuming there's no wrinkle in your local law), you don't want to get trapped in an ugly public battle with a VC as it will potentially make raising funds in the future much harder - whether for Talon.One or another company.

I'd recommend talking quietly to the GP at Investor B and seek his/her advice on how to settle this quickly, quietly and preferably with little or no out-of-pocket expense. Based on the facts laid out, I don't like the behavior of Investor A so I hope this process ends with them reflecting on their actions and realizing that they won't survive long in the VC game if they don't adapt.

I'd add 3. Fantasy Football

This was my experience when I worked remotely for an East Coast company while based in SF. When I joined the company the expectation was that I would work Pacific hours, coming online around 9am PDT. Of course reality proved very different, and slowly my start time crept earlier and earlier until I found myself online at 6am daily - I was effectively working 3-4 hours longer than my East Coast colleagues simply because of the timezone I was located in. I didn't last long and moved to Bay Area company that allowed me to work from home 2-3 days a week.

This is an important calculation that too many employees ignore. They get lured in by the stories of early Facebook and Google employees walking away with tens or in some cases hundreds of millions from their options, when in reality most start-ups fail and of those that succeed a sub-$100m exit is more likely than a blockbuster exit.

As an early employee you can probably negotiate 1-2%, which after dilution, tax and all the other fun things that come with options doesn't generate the returns to justify giving up the better part of a decade while arguably taking on just as much risk (if not more) than a founder. I've worked at several start-ups - including one where the founder plundered the employee option pool to offset his own dilution - and won't work at another unless it pays an above market salary or I am in a founder role.