
I had my second company stolen. Also, bonus office scandal - nubela
https://nubela.co/blog/how-to-steal-a-company-and-sleep-with-your-22-year-old-employee/
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Traster
Willingly choosing to leave your company because you don't like how your 50:50
partner is behaving is not 'losing' your company. It's giving it away. Let's
face it as well, in any small startup, losing 1 of your founders is often the
death knell. Especially if you're going to walk off with half the money. It
doesn't sound like the company he left really lasted long after he left - it's
got a website with no updates since 2015.

This article also shows a real lack of self-reflection and judgment. There are
lots of lessons from this story and 'have more equity than your partner' is
not the most important one. Thousands of startups fail because of inter-
founder dynamics, there's lots of interesting stuff to talk about there. But
if your approach to that is 'have 51% and vote my founder out', then your
attitude is wrong.

Also, don't spread gossip on the internet about your cofounders! Now anyone
who you consider partnering with in the future knows that if things don't work
out, you're at risk of spilling their personal lives on the internet. I know
that would be a red flag for me.

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qtplatypus
One of the things I noticed was how much he undervalued having lunch with the
team. He says its mindless chatter.

However your staff are stakeholders in your product and you need to support
them.

Also in any workplace the informal communication channels are far more
effective then formal ones.

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nubela
Guys, don't take this too seriously. I am over it now and have been for a long
time (> 5 years?). This was one of the earliest stories (failures?) I had, and
it is just one of the daily posts that I write to tell stories about my
journey.

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akerl_
You posted a picture of your cofounder as part of a story that frames them as
a thief. And the lesson you learned amounts to “never trust somebody with 50%
of a joint venture”.

People don’t seem to be taking things “too seriously”, you’ve posted your
thoughts and people are giving you honest feedback on them.

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tomohawk
As a general rule, partnerships are very risky and should be avoided, and this
story illustrates that.

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throwaway2019Z
There was no "stealing" whatsoever, OP got tilted by his slacker partner
(understandable) and undersold his shares of the company.

As a general rule, I never do business with friends or family:

1) If things go poorly, you risk losing both.

2) If things go well, you still risk losing both.

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kirillzubovsky
I wouldn't call it stolen. If we are to believe the article, the founder was
naive, and gave it away. The co-founder had definitely played a part in taking
it, but it takes two to tango.

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iamcreasy
> A few days later, he gave me documents to sign over all my equity and gave
> me half of what the company had in the bank.

Agreed. That's what I get from the article as well.

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slightwinder
Cash is not the most valuable asset of a company. In this case he lost the
clients and a valuable worker, which his partner took from him. Could be
considered as stealing, but we don't know the other side.

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alecco
All avoidable if he consulted a competent lawyer early on.

~~~
marcus_holmes
The lawyer could solve the technical issues of how to split the company up (or
not).

But the real issue is the relationship between the founders. The business is
screwed because these two people don't get on any more, and the business
requires them to get on. Even a really competent lawyer can't solve that.

~~~
qtplatypus
When reading your comment I realised that working out how to manage
distributing shared property between two people is basically the task of a
divorse lawyer.

Which makes me think are there equiverlents of marriage counclers for business
partners.

~~~
marcus_holmes
interesting question.

The closest I've seen to this is a professional chairman. I was on a board for
a few years with a VC-appointed professional chairman, and he was really good
with managing the relationships between the founders, VC's and executive team.

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aflag
It doesn't sound like it was stolen. It seems just a bad breakup. Kian started
to have other priorities in life besides his own company. I've been in a
similar position, I quit and I wasn't so melodramatic about it.

Ironically, Steve Goh, the blogger, calls himself "the lazy CEO". I guess he
wasn't match for an even lazier one.

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tpetry
Agreeing to leave with 50% of the banks cash amount may or may not be a good
deal for him. I guess the second. Much better to discuss something based on
the expected 1-2 years revenue.

