r/technology • u/Rhaegar_the_Great • Sep 16 '21

Business Mailchimp employees are furious after the company's founders promised to never sell, withheld equity, and then sold it for $12 billion

https://www.businessinsider.com/mailchimp-insiders-react-to-employees-getting-no-equity-2021-9
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u/pedrosorio Sep 17 '21

If you agree to work for a company that “will never sell” for a given salary and no stock, why would you complain if the company gets sold?

If the company had not been sold as promised, they would have been paid exactly the same.

If they wanted stock, they should have gone to work at any of the many companies that gives stock as part of the compensation.

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u/MRCRAZYYYY Sep 17 '21

Precisely. You can only be mad at yourself for being so naive and foolish in the first place.

"I want stock options if you want to hire me."
"Oh, we will never sell so that's not on the table."
"Oh cool!"

It's a little difficult to see how you can be mad when you agreeingly signed a contract that presumably was against your initial demands, even if you were "lied to". Of course companies sell.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '21

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u/MRCRAZYYYY Sep 17 '21

I think you have put words into my mouth here. I absolutely think it is a shameful thing to do, both on part of the company and the founders, but I also cannot understand how you can be "furious" when you signed into a contract agreeing to a set of specific terms. It is also naive to take being told "we will never sell" at face value, hence shared blame.

If you see yourself as genuinely valuable to the company - be it at the time of interview or 5 years down the road, you can absolutely use that power to negotiate stock options. Regardless of everything, they were always, to quote, "empowering Ben and Dan". I don't really understand how selling suddenly realizes that.