Hello all, I recently just left a failing startup that recently lost 25% of their revenue in one day and laid off 25% of their company. They've been losing revenue, failing to get funding rounds, and failing to get acquired to get a payout. Technical direction suffered as we started to go back and build unmaintainable solutions that resulted in me personally working overnight to fix the issues. I took these very obvious red flags and decided to give my two weeks. Everyone involved with me thought I'd be working those full 10 days and planned out meetings and work for me to do. Lo and behold 3 days into that I'm asked to not return to work and I'm being put on leave immediately until the end of my employment. Great for me, but apparently my efforts to give employees the opportunity to communicate and talk with me about any domain knowledge they need has caused some issues. Supposedly during my exit I solicited a few employees to leave the company similar to me, as far as I know I haven't done anything. So I have this email here stating that I did. Anyone have any experience with a startup bullying a former employee? I've already talked with a lawyer and they said the component they said I broke is unenforceable in general and especially in California.
Name and shame that startup
I don't know if naming and shaming would be best until after they try to sue me. I think it'd be idiotic if they did end up suing me. Dm me if you really want to know the company though. It's a santa Monica fin-tech
If they are failing they wont have the resources to sue. It's an empty threat. Also, I'm in LA too. NAME AND SHAME!
Non compete and non disclosure agreements are not allowed in California, which it seems like your lawyer clarified for you
NDA's are enforceable but non solicitation and non competes aren't enforceable.
Listen to your lawyer. As a general rule of thumb, companies that are losing money and laying people off, generally don’t have money to pay lawyers to go after people.
This is my first thought. How can they even afford a lawsuit if they’re bleeding $$
They make a last stitch effort to sue to attempt to get money? Unlikely and highly risky
Losers desperate for money from competitors
That's what I figured it is, pure desperation rather than anything concrete
I worked at a startup with a crazy founder who threatened to sue even when they had no money. the founder paid lawyers money he probably didn’t have to send me letter after letter trying to get me to do work after I quit in exchange for just about nothing. Just be prepared for crazy if it does happen. Some people need a reason to blame for their ship going down
"apparently my efforts to give employees the opportunity to communicate and talk with me about any domain knowledge they need has caused some issues." Don't know abt legal stuff; But why did you discuss anything outside of planning your transition, after giving your 2 weeks notice?
I didn't. All the discussions I had were supervised by the CTO during the transition. The guy is panicking about his company because what he had is being pissed away with his own poor management skills. He's forcing employees to work on Thanksgiving and black friday in the office. Apparently is very angry if you say you want to spend time with your family on holiday
That's not very professional of them at all
I'm confident they have nothing against me, and of the employees who are my friends who work there have said that I never tried to convince or solicit them. So I have no idea who I tried to convince. Just seems like they want to be able to sue me to get money to be able to sustain their failing company.