Dear non-executive team members,
All of my options have vested, and I haven’t been offered any new ones so my earning potential here is no longer all that great. Worse, as we’ve operated and developed better understandings of the problems we face it seems less likely than ever that we’ll achieve the vision we set out to achieve. Finally, the blackout periods are having a real negative effect on my ability to diversify my wealth and avoid the high risk of this company’s success chances. Therefore I’m leaving on a “high note” while we can still plausibly call this endeavor a success, and after I’ve left will convert all my equity in this venture into other forms of wealth while not having to report it to the SEC as an insider to avoid adverse effects on the stock value of our parent company.
The process of who to replace me hasn’t gone well. The two most likely candidates have been unable to reach a consensus on who should be “boss” and who should work for the other. Since they both threatened to quit if either was made CEO, I’ve done the Solomon thing and made them BOTH CEO. That way every decision the company makes can be second guessed with “was this her doing this? Or was it his?” While it doesn’t make for a very clean organizational structure it does solve the last problem I needed to fix before the board would let me leave.
We raised a big round of financing last year with external investment firms, so when it is our turn on the Alphabet chopping block, you can be assured that this “other bet” will be spun off or acquired in whole. And while I realize this will likely not be the financial outcome you dreamed of, it means that if you want to keep working in this space you will be able to do so for longer than if this financing hadn’t occurred. So you should keep an eye open on your inboxes for a sudden “all hands, mandatory attendance” meeting sometime in the next couple of years.
Cheers,
Your Former Leader