Help me Hacker News!
I'll try to keep this story short and sweet, although there has been enough drama for a TV mini-series. There are two characters in this story, who I will call Bob and Jim to help keep things straight.
Last May, I joined my first startup (name censored for now). There were two founders (Bob - CEO, Jim - CTO) who had recently graduated from a local startup incubator and were hiring their first employee (VP of Engineering). Money was decent, equity was high, lots of fun was had. I was assured that there was enough runway to last until March 2014.
Three months later, Jim (CTO) decides he wants to be CEO. Bob(CEO) obliges him, and super awkward situation lasts for about a month. Then the Bob(old-CEO) decides to leave the company. Jim (new-CEO) assures me everything will be ok. I had an expensive vacation planned in October to visit my wife's family in the Philippines for three weeks, which I was thinking about canceling due to the drama, but new-CEO assured me I have stable income through at least January 2014 and told me to go on it.
A week later, Bob (old-CEO) asks to meet me in a coffee shop. As most of the investors were his family and friends and invested in him personally, he can't give up yet. Asks me if I could handle CTO responsibilities if he came back and kicked out Jim (current-CEO). I said that I could handle them.
Bob comes back, Jim gets booted. Drama ensues as Jim makes Bob write a statement and read it to all investors basically saying how Jim is faultless in this entire endeavor and made absolutely no mistakes. Just to end drama, Bob actually does it. I ask again if my income is stable, Bob says yes, through January at the least.
Workload increases, but things are going well as me and Bob work well together. By now it's mid-September, and I am rushing to launch the product before I leave for vacation on October 16th.
After a few sleepless weeks, I launch the product, minus a few minor features and with some low-priority bugs. I leave on vacation, pretty happy and optimistic in Bob's ability to find beta users and start raising the next round of investment. The first week of my 3 week vacation (Oct 18-25) I am truly off-the-grid on a tropical island with no internet. I come back the second week, to my wife's family's house. After sending an email to check in with Bob, I start working on bug-fixes. No reply for a few days. Then I receive an email on Oct 31, "The company can't afford to pay you anymore. Your last day of work will be November 15th."
Apparently, the legal bills to pay for the breakup of Bob and Jim were quite high and after a few meetings with investors, Bob decides he is unable to fundraise.
I am disappointed, but hey, this is what I signed up for by joining a startup. I ask Bob for 2 months severance, since for months and through two CEO's I had assured income through January. My bank account is also pretty low due to this expensive vacation, which I only took because of the assumption I would have income through January. Also, I am on the other side of the world until Nov 6th, leaving me 9 days to find a new job.
Understanding that perhaps the company truly has no cash, I ask that Bob asks all the investors if they would buy out the equity that I have accrued, to help him take him of the responsibilities he has for his employees.
After a few days of no response, I receive an email today which is basically saying no to my requests, and starting to blame me for the company failure. I'm not saying at all that I don't have partial blame, but this is the first I've heard of any issues with my work.
Help me Hacker News. Are my requests unreasonable? What should I do? Should I take any legal action?
A normal crashing startup story, with only one mistake on your part: you are reduced to bargaining for severance money from the people who decided to fire you, on the weak grounds of your assumptions and their not-really-promises.
I have no idea of what you are entitled to according to employment laws, but in your next job your contract should put an adequate severance treatment in writing instead of allowing termination with too little warning and too little money.
The rather reciprocal conditions of Italian employment contracts can be a suitable model: in addition to specific penalties for termination, which are quite common for top managers, everybody has a certain time period of advance warning (several weeks, often 2-6 months, sometimes more), applicable both to the employee resigning and to the company firing him, and either party can shorten the wait by paying the corresponding amount of wages. Paying for the privilege of getting rid immediately of someone who would damage the company by staying is relatively normal; resigning employees are much less likely to pay, usually opting to stay long enough to minimize disruption in exchange for the employer forfeiting the rest of the warning period.