
I'm leaving my day job. But my CEO doesn't want me to leave. - ceoinvest
I work at a company of around 600 employees.  I was planning to give my two weeks notice on Monday (to work full-time on my startup), but the CEO caught wind of my thoughts and would like to know if there's any way we can work together rather than having me jump ship altogether.  This is a multi-million dollar company in the media business, owned by a multi-billion dollar parent company.<p>My ideas would be:<p>1) My CEO becomes an angel investor.<p>2) I leave my job for 2-3 months so I can work on my startup, and they make it easy for me to come back if I fail (I don't think I will, so this isn't that important to me).<p>3) My company invests and becomes an small-percentage equity owner and lets me leave, happy to know that at least if my startup succeeds, they will be hundreds of thousands or millions richer.<p>I guess I don't have to work with them at all, but it seems like a 'blank check' or sorts that I would be silly to pass up.  What would you ask for?<p>This is a fairly established startup with a few million unique users but no revenue as of yet (exploring a promising freemium model).
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brk
I could be wrong, but I doubt he has any desire to invest in your business
(and if he doesn't meet accredited investor requirements, you might not be
able to legally pull it together anyway).

More likely, he does not want to deal with backfilling your positions and
training a new person.

The probability is that he is being selfish, not helpful to you. I would look
for some sort of work-from-home or part-time arrangement. Let them "fund" your
startup by allowing you to keep a portion of your paycheck, not by actual
investing.

Don't count on option 2, either. I've seen many cases where a "super critical"
employee leaves with much concern, and 3 months later it's like they never
even worked there.

I don't mean to sound negative, just realistic...

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ceoinvest
The work from home or part-time arrangement sounds OK. He has already hinted
at that. As someone else has said, I worry a bit about IP in that case
(although I never signed any agreement with my employer).

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graywh
IANAL, but I don't know that you have to sign any kind of agreement other than
you cashing your paychecks and them having a written policy stashed away
somewhere.

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ceoinvest
Note to self: determine if they have any IP policy stashed away somewhere.

The startup existed as its own corporation before they hired me; in fact, they
hired me because they liked the startup.

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boredguy8
I'm pretty sure he means "work together to keep you here" not "work together
on your new project".

Noodle's suggestion of offering to stay on as a consultant for less than 40
hours a week is probably the best suggestion.

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jgilliam
I just went through this process myself. It can be tempting to structure some
kind of part-time agreement, to continue to consult with your old company, but
I didn't do it.

It took me 5 months to extract myself from my old company, I planned it out
with the CEO and set a date. After that date, all I've done is answer the
occasional question. Now I have complete focus on my startup, and it's been
wonderful beyond even what I expected. It's unleashed a whole lot of
creativity that was squashed at the old company because my ideas didn't really
fit in with the company's direction. I'm totally loving it.

~~~
ceoinvest
That is some seriously encouraging commentary. Thanks.

~~~
Oxryly
True dat. Although now you need to get someone to weigh in where the process
backfired on them. Volunteers?

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niyazpk
"This is a fairly established startup with a few million unique users"

I cannot understand what is holding you back. Quit your job. No strings
attached. Just go for it.

If you have a startup with a few million users and you don't quit your job,
who will? This is a no-brainer. Take your chances. Take the plunge. It will
turn out good.

~~~
HSO
Oh I don't know. How is it "taking your chances" if "it will turn out good"?
It may turn out bad, in fact, the unconditional odds are against him. Not to
be a sourpuss, just being realistic. I think he is quite right to agonize a
bit and think his options through for the event that it does not go well, even
with millions of unique users. Good risk management...

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tptacek
This is pretty easy: switch from employment to 1099 contracting. Get a master
services agreement in place with its own IP clause, which ensures you own your
own product, services, and methodology work. An MSA should also establish your
ability to subcontract work, or substitute any of your employees for yourself
on projects.

Then get an up-front commit on a couple months worth of work.

You have now set yourself on a course to bootstrap the company off consulting
work. Total win.

~~~
enra
It's quite common that key persons(usually in management/business) stay as
consultants for a while, like few months to few years, when they're
leaving/boostrapping their own company. The company will have enough time to
fill the position and train the new guy and the person leaving can keep stuff
running and turn over accounts/information/contacts.

Try to negotiate somekind of new contract. It's good to get a solid contract,
say for like 6months, which is renewable or terminated if both parties agree,
so they can't drop you easily(you can have some income projections) but they
cant keep you forever either, and you can terminate it if it doesn't work out.

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noodle
what if you went from a full-time employee to a contract/freelance worker at
maybe 20 hrs/week? more time to work on the startup, and you'll still have a
separate steady paycheck (edit: while you work on monetizing the startup).

~~~
ceoinvest
Good suggestion, I'll have to think about that.

Then again, the startup definitely has enough work to keep me busy full-time,
and taking a 1/2 cut in pay to work 20 hrs a week on the startup is almost
worse than going to $0 pay to go as fast as humanly possible.

~~~
noodle
why would you agree to a simple 1:1 ratio paycut to hours worked? minimally,
you need to cover taxes, benefits, etc. that the company was covering
previously, so your hourly rate should be higher from that. but since you're
the one inconvenienced here, you should be asking for more on top of that.

~~~
ceoinvest
Good point!

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xcombinator
My advice: Get 100% on your startup or don't jump the ship.

Don't fire bridges with your last job-contacts. Keep your friends and be
polite with your CEO but tell him you have taken a decision.

Factor Number 1 in a startup is time, if you continue working for your job,
you lose a lot of more time in between. You need to be in the position of
having only two options: 1-success or 2...success. You need to be hungry for
success. Take money from people you know how they are.

~~~
flipper
pg wrote about the risks of trying to consult and build a startup at the same
time:

<http://www.paulgraham.com/startupmistakes.html>

Look at #18. It's what killed my startup.

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gibsonf1
I know of a similar case where the company continued to pay 75% of the
person's salary and health coverage for half-time work. This worked out pretty
well.

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gojomo
Is your startup in an area strategic to your current employer? That presents
an opportunity for their formal support but also a risk -- are you certain
they'd have no claims on the work you've already done?

~~~
ceoinvest
Yes, it is. They could offer a lot of promotion, but our biggest challenge
right now isn't exposure, it's (no surprise) revenue.

~~~
thorax
Exposure can be a catalyst for revenue (of course), so that does sound handy.

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Dilpil
4) You ask your current employer to match the position and potential financial
upside (with far less risk of course) you would be getting at the start up.

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PaulMorgan
How about a retainer agreement? They purchase some of your time each month.
This limits your time devoted to their concerns but could also be a
distraction from the startup. The rest of your time is devoted to your startup
with the retainer giving you more runway.

Any chance your current employer could become a paying customer? Starting off
with a customer gives you credibility for capital and other customers.

~~~
ceoinvest
Retainer--that's not a bad idea. So they could potentially hire me out for X
hours per month, and there would be an upper bound on X?

 _Any chance your current employer could become a paying customer?_

Already are, actually.

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biohacker42
3

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ceoinvest
Do you know of any examples where this has been done?

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biohacker42
Actually I do and just can't think of them. But I know this is not that
unusual.

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blender
Chances are you will fail. Even if you do the right things.

Don't mean to be harsh but that's the statistical reality.

Cheers

~~~
ceoinvest
If you fail even by doing the right things, you are tragic, and I wouldn't
call that a failure because I believe in rebirth.

Off-topic: what's your measure of success?

