Joining a startup involves a social contract where employees take risks for potential rewards, trusting their founders. Recent acquihires, such as Meta's deal for Scale AI and Google's acquisition of Windsurf, have jeopardized this trust by taking key leaders from their companies, leaving employees to face uncertain futures. The fallout has sparked frustration, particularly concerning the fate of laid-off employees. These situations threaten to alter the initial discussions regarding employee relationships in startups, impacting the trust and expectations established from the beginning.
When an employee joins a startup, there's a social contract of sorts. The employee takes a risk, joining a new company with uncertain prospects.
The social contract has been under pressure, as multi-billion dollar acquihires take CEOs away, leaving uncertain futures for employees.
The deal that excluded about 250 Windsurf employees fostered concerns about equity and the relationship between founders and their employees.
The cascading net effect of this sort of situation is that it's going to change what early conversations with employees are like at startups.
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