Re:WeWork Employee Options Underwater as Ex-CEO Reaps
by kelnos on Thursday October 24, 2019 @03:50PM
(#21348504)
I don't agree that it's right that they write him a big check, but I, too, have trouble feeling too angry at Neumann.
He played the game remarkably well: he managed to get a prominent investor to believe the company was worth a ton of money. The public markets disagreed quite vehemently on that value, and yet he still managed to retain a huge amount of leverage to the point where he's being paid quite a hefty sum to give up control.
It absolutely sucks that many of the regular rank-and-file are getting shafted, but that is one of the many risks you take on when you join a startup where you have a low salary, compensated by private-company stock options funny-money. If you (for example) have a family and no other source of income, you should not take that deal. If you take it anyway, and it blows up in your face, that's on you. Humans are unfortunately remarkably bad at risk assessment sometimes.
He played the game remarkably well: he managed to get a prominent investor to believe the company was worth a ton of money. The public markets disagreed quite vehemently on that value, and yet he still managed to retain a huge amount of leverage to the point where he's being paid quite a hefty sum to give up control.
It absolutely sucks that many of the regular rank-and-file are getting shafted, but that is one of the many risks you take on when you join a startup where you have a low salary, compensated by private-company stock options funny-money. If you (for example) have a family and no other source of income, you should not take that deal. If you take it anyway, and it blows up in your face, that's on you. Humans are unfortunately remarkably bad at risk assessment sometimes.