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A comment on Ask HN: How to leave a startup when you own a third of it?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: How to leave a startup when you own a third of it? by SkyMarshal on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @02:00PM (#14360989)
That rarely happens. In that case the incentive is actually to stay on, let your co-founders drive the value, and pocket the equity/$ for it. Easy money. Takes a rare breed to self-sacrifice for the good of the company.

It's more likely what annovikov said, the one leaving has serious doubts about the strategy but got out-voted.

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Re:Ask HN: How to leave a startup when you own a third of it? by derefr on Wednesday May 17, 2017 @05:48PM (#14363115)
What is the self-sacrifice in this case? You're trading "working to build a business to earn an equity-stake" for "free-riding on others' work to build said business to make your equity-stake more valuable."

Think of it as two separate companies: Startup A, which you co-founded, and which ended up dissolving, you seeing nothing for your efforts (other than whatever salary you managed to scrape out); and then, Startup B, which you bought a huge number of shares of for the amazing price of $0/share, and now get to smile as those shares appreciate, like any investor. It just so happens that Startup A and Startup B are the same company at different points in their life, but that shouldn't change your views toward the two situations.

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