
Google Hired All The Men At This Startup, But Not The Company's Only Woman - jerryhuang100
http://www.businessinsider.com/secret-post-on-google-acqui-hire-2014-4
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mjolk
>'But that's not the case when you're the only member of your five-person
company who's left behind...Even though she founded the company and "the
product was my idea," she didn't get a deal because she was not an engineer.'

While technically accurate, the headline is pretty sensational. She goes on to
describe herself as a generalist (and not an expert), which is something that
is not really the target for aquihires.

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jack-r-abbit
Perhaps this is a better title: Google Hired All The _Engineers_ At This
Startup, But Not The Company's Only _Designer_

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mjolk
To be fair to her, it sounds like she did a lot more than design, but sure, I
think focusing on role in this case is more accurate than gender.

Also, and at least to my ear, 'All' sounds like more than 5 people.
Unfortunately, "Google only hires 80% of a company in an aquihire" doesn't
have the page-view potential.

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jack-r-abbit
Agreed. But lots of things that were not coding. I'm guessing Google was all
staffed up on people to do those things. And "All" does invoke a feeling of
more than 5 to me to. If the company was 80 men and 20 women and they took all
the men and none of the women, then I'd say there was some issues. But "all" 4
men and not the 1 women (who happened to have a different skill set)... meh.
I'm not convinced.

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jonalmeida
I don't particularly know how the acquihiring process goes, but couldn't the
to-be-acquired negotiate that the acquiring needs to employ everyone?

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OafTobark
California is an-at will employment state. What this means is any employee can
quit and any employer can let go without cause as long as it isn't against the
law (which is insanely difficult to prove to begin with). Any offer they
provide to her (salary, earn out, etc)... Would not have mattered if they
hired her on and let her go a day later... Ultimately contracts are fickle
like that. There are probably exceptions to all of the above but most likely
difficult to enforce in the end.

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jchonphoenix
I think most people misunderstand what an acquihire actually entails, so they
get up in arms over a statement like this.

It's not uncommon for even male founders to not join on in an acquihire. In an
acquihire, the only thing the acquiring company cares about are specific
talents/skill sets. The product, business, and assets of the startup are
worthless to the acquirer. It looks like in this case, Google was only looking
for the engineering talent and nothing else. There's no sexism here on
Google's part because they're doing exactly what's best for Google. Gender
isn't part of this equation for them.

Now, the lines on the startup's side are less clear cut, but if this was a
failing startup, this would not be sexism, but a clean way out for people to
get jobs. If it wasn't, it just sounds to me like she cofounded a startup with
people she shouldn't have trusted. Men make that mistake all the time.

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Im_Talking
I don't buy this at all. If she founded company she would have equity and some
sort of agreement(s)/documentation supporting her story.

If she can't product any documentation then she's out-of-luck.

Lesson to all of us: get things in writing.

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valdiorn
"when google hired all the engineers at this startup, but not the only non-
engineer" <\-- that's the headline.

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b2themax
How would she have felt without the 10k payout, while all the engineers left
for Google regardless?

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b2themax
Its called 'aquihired' for a reason. They didn't need any of the startup
besides the talent.

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supercanuck
If you are a generalist (read: women.. Wink wink), think twice about slaving
away at a start up because the payouts might not apply to you.

Bummer.

