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0 pointsechelon4y ago0 comments

I don't think my friends thought my job was better, despite my regularly selling it. I failed to get them over for a happy hour or tech talk, which would have been a better sell than just talking about comp.

Mailchimp was also super "artsy" (they hire artists to do murals), and my friends talked about how cool the founders were. This played the biggest role, I think. They had a mythos.

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7 comments · 2 top-level

nextlevelwizard4y ago· 3 in thread

> despite my regularly selling it.

This usually is a huge red flag. If one of my friends would try to regularly recruit me into their startup I would be very suspicious if the company was on solid ground or if my friend is just desperate and trying to get someone else into the bad deal they found themselves in so they don't have to deal with it alone.

_0ffh4y ago

I regularly wonder what definition of "friend" some people operate with. If I found myself in a losing position, I'd do my best to keep my friends out of it, not to drag them in.

disgruntledphd24y ago

Yeah, I've been at a few companies in the last few years, and would never try to recruit anyone unless I was sure that they'd enjoy the new company.

rocqua4y ago

There are 'tiers' of people I would consider a 'friend', who'se pitches to me I would also be skeptical off, for suspicion they are self-interested.

Now, this tier of friend is very close to 'acquaintance' but I think there are plenty of people for whom the boundary of 'being a friend' includes these kinds of acquaintance.

LurkingPenguin4y ago· 2 in thread

Well it sounds like comp wasn't as important to your friends at that time. If that's changed following Mailchimp's acquisition, that's on them, not Mailchimp.

filoleg4y ago

Agreed. While the comp situation at MailChimp was subpar due to no-equity component, it isn’t fair to blame them for the outcome of this story here.

There were no lies. The employees werent offered equity that ended up being worth nothing. They got job offers that stipulated X cash with no equity, and they willingly and knowingly accepted those offers, and they got compensated as promised. I fail to see how MailChimp is at fault here.

The fact that there is Microsoft/Google/etc. and tons of other companies in the vicinity that pay way more, and grandparent poster’s friends still were staying there despite the poster’s urging and advertising, tells more about those friends than Mailchimp.

esyir4y ago

I don't get it. One of the biggest memes around the startup scene is that equity is essentially a lottery ticket, and most lottery tickets don't win.

Taking a known cash component with no equity, especially since this is already known and in the open is well established as the safe, "smart" move.

Then you see this hullaballoo about not winning the lottery.

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