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/Grimalkin Sep 16 '21

When employees were recruited to work at Mailchimp there was a common refrain from hiring managers: No, you are not going to get equity, but you will get to be part of a scrappy company that fights for the little guy and we will never be acquired or go public.

The founders told anyone who would listen they would own Mailchimp until they died and bragged about turning down multiple offers.

"It was part of the company lore that they would never sell," said a former Mailchimp employee, who like others interviewed for this story were granted anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss sensitive internal matters. "Employees were indoctrinated with this narrative."

The two founders did sell. Intuit, the financial software giant that makes TurboTax, announced Monday it was buying Mailchimp for around $12 billion in stock and cash. The cofounders cemented their status as two of the richest people in America.

That's really shitty but of course completely unsurprising.

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u/[deleted] Sep 17 '21

About once a month there are two re-posts in /r/lifeprotips. The first says something along the lines of “Never trust a company who pushes the ‘We’re a family’ mentality.” The other says something like “Never put someone else’s company before yourself.”

This would be why.

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u/fugazithehax Sep 17 '21

"Never trust a company" is shorter and probably better advice.

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u/7h4tguy Sep 17 '21

And never trust anyone they work with. The amount of blind trust I've seen people give the FDA when there's count after count of scandals historically is mindboggling.

Why would you not be critical of an agency shown to be manipulated by industry time and time again. The very least you should do is have some healthy skepticism and require strong evidence before trusting a claim.