My Story of VC
Published: 2024-06-21 14:33:29

<div>I was left with just 0.15% of my own VC-backed Startup.</div><div><br></div><div>(may happen to anyone).</div><div><br></div><div>In 2013, I worked as a part-time CTO in several software startups in a startup incubator.</div><div><br></div><div>On one of the “Friday beer” evenings, I was approached by a huge old man.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>He broke the ice, touched my shoulder, and behaved like we were old friends. He knew who I was and made me feel so safe.</div><div><br></div><div>It all looked random to me, but it wasn’t.</div><div>Years later, he revealed: “I moved into this incubator because I wanted to hire you.”</div><div>CoFounder</div><div>He was about to start a hardware startup, a hardware product that looked like it was made by Apple.</div><div><br></div><div>This idea felt so compelling (compared to easy software tools I worked on) that I had no doubt and joined him as a CTO and CoFounder. I got 15% of the company.</div><div>Rich Man</div><div>He was a rich man with a huge house in the city's best luxury area and a big exit in the past.</div><div>He kept saying: “I can’t do this without you..”. He was a master of psychology, and I'd do anything for him, he was my mentor, like a father.</div><div><br></div><div>I did my best job ever, working days and nights and sleeping on the office couch with 20-hour shifts.&nbsp;</div><div>We had lots of orders, and I was putting the software and hardware together, driving it to the clients, and installing it.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div>I was obsessed; My girlfriend left me because we didn’t see each other. I would be home when she was asleep and leave before she woke up.</div><div>Equity</div><div>Whenever we hired someone, the founder would give them equity, and I asked him why he gave out equity so easily. He said: I know how to return it back when needed.&nbsp;</div><div>I didn't get what he meant, but I learned this in a very painful way later, that I'll share at the end of the story.</div><div><br></div><div>Living A Dream</div><div>Things were going really well,</div><div>We met Jack Dorsey (founder of Twitter and Square) in SF and presented our machine. We partnered with his company, which was making the payment stands, to use them for our machine. Lots of doors were open. We raised money from investors and got into the best B2B accelerator in the world, Silicon Valley.</div><div>Break up</div><div>While things were going really well, I engaged with a new girl. She got pregnant while studying in Norway.</div><div>I was traveling between SF and Oslo, and it was too difficult while having an infant.</div><div><br></div><div>I felt like I had no control over my life.&nbsp;</div><div>I had to fly to meet partners, VCs, and a co-founder. Everything was on their terms, so I had to adapt.</div><div>It all led to me breaking up with the girl. My life was a mess, and I couldn't move to SF because it meant I couldn't see my kid.</div><div><br></div><div>I decided to leave the startup. I spent a year hiring more people, delegating, and finding a new guy to replace me as CTO. The replacement went very well, so eventually, I left, and the company did great without me.</div><div><span style="background-color: rgba(31,41,55,var(--tw-bg-opacity)); font-size: 1.125rem; color: rgba(255,255,255,var(--tw-text-opacity)); font-family: inherit;">Poor Founder Risk</span><br></div><div>I moved on with my new startup, but a few months later, I got an email from the board. They were planning a new funding round, which looked good to me. So, at first, I was happy about that; it meant my shares would be worth more.</div><div><br></div><div>But it turned out they were planning an internal downturn, in which all investors had to contribute because they had inflated the expenses so much that the company needed an urgent investment.</div><div>I was the only shareholder who wasn't rich.</div><div>It was relatively little money for all the investors, but for me, it was more than I could afford. Since I owned 15% and couldn’t participate in the round, my 15% was diluted to 0.15%.</div><div><br></div><div>Why?</div><div><br></div><div style="border-color: rgba(229,231,235,var(--tw-border-opacity)); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-border-opacity: 1;">It turns out that in a VC-funded startup, it’s very easy to lose all almost your equity if the startup decides to have an internal round and issue new shares. It may have 100 shares, I own 15 and others own 85. Then it may issue 1000 shares, where each costs 10k. So I’d have to put 150k to stay with my 15%. (the numbers aren’t real, just for an example). So, this was the end of the story for me.</div><div style="border-color: rgba(229,231,235,var(--tw-border-opacity)); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-border-opacity: 1;"><br style="border-color: rgba(229,231,235,var(--tw-border-opacity)); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-border-opacity: 1;"></div><div style="border-color: rgba(229,231,235,var(--tw-border-opacity)); --tw-border-spacing-x: 0; --tw-border-spacing-y: 0; --tw-translate-x: 0; --tw-translate-y: 0; --tw-rotate: 0; --tw-skew-x: 0; --tw-skew-y: 0; --tw-scale-x: 1; --tw-scale-y: 1; --tw-pan-x: ; --tw-pan-y: ; --tw-pinch-zoom: ; --tw-scroll-snap-strictness: proximity; --tw-gradient-from-position: ; --tw-gradient-via-position: ; --tw-gradient-to-position: ; --tw-ordinal: ; --tw-slashed-zero: ; --tw-numeric-figure: ; --tw-numeric-spacing: ; --tw-numeric-fraction: ; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-shadow-colored: 0 0 #0000; --tw-blur: ; --tw-brightness: ; --tw-contrast: ; --tw-grayscale: ; --tw-hue-rotate: ; --tw-invert: ; --tw-saturate: ; --tw-sepia: ; --tw-drop-shadow: ; --tw-backdrop-blur: ; --tw-backdrop-brightness: ; --tw-backdrop-contrast: ; --tw-backdrop-grayscale: ; --tw-backdrop-hue-rotate: ; --tw-backdrop-invert: ; --tw-backdrop-opacity: ; --tw-backdrop-saturate: ; --tw-backdrop-sepia: ; --tw-border-opacity: 1;">I worked 100 hours a week for 3 years at the expense of my personal life &amp; health.</div><div>The moral: Owning equity in a startup doesn’t protect you unless you’re rich or important to the startup.</div><div><br></div><div>People often ask me: why do you hate VCs so much?</div><div>Well, here is why.</div><div>And this is just one story.</div><div>I have four more.<br></div>