Venture Backed or Bootstrapped? There's a Third Way. Just Raise One Round

Re:Venture Backed or Bootstrapped? There's a Third Way. Just... by nico on Friday January 19, 2024 @12:52PM (#39058645)

This is cool, as long as you have some way of compensating people that took risk for equity

Personally, I took a very low paying job at a VC-backed company over 10 years ago. Left some time later with a significant amount of equity in the form of stock options. The company has grown immensely since then, they became profitable and stopped raising money

Now I’m stuck with a bunch of ISO options that I need to spend money on to actually own the equity, without any foreseeable exit/liquidity event. The company is not offering to buy back anyone’s stock and won’t even provide financials to find a buyer myself

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venture Backed or Bootstrapped? There's a Third Way. Just... by cj on Friday January 19, 2024 @01:10PM (#39058916)

I’m sorry that happened to you.

Personally I don’t like when founders talk up the value of equity. Stock options should always be seen as lottery tickets and nothing more.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Venture Backed or Bootstrapped? There's a Third Way. Just... by c_o_n_v_e_x on Friday January 19, 2024 @05:41PM (#39062341)

>The company is not offering to buy back anyone’s stock and won’t even provide financials to find a buyer myself

A lot of countries have minority shareholder rights. This seems like something where those rights would kick in (even if you just have options).

[ Parent | on HN ]