I had equity in the outfit, I made my first million from it, and again, I had fun. If the CEI were at home partying, it would have been a different story. But we were all there. Kidding, coding and trying to keep something we were building together alive.
[Raises hand] I spent countless weekends and evenings in my mid-20s to help the company meet a delivery deadlines (earning the company X million pounds each time) or to untangle some production fuckup (saving the company from having to “best price” trades or incur fines). Claims of overtime shushed and dismissed (“come on you already make more than $colleague…”). Promises of equity that were “delivered” in the form of some kind of ultimately worthless “units” that were granted in place of actual shares (just while the legal side is worked out, you know) and which were eventually swept under the carpet as if they never existed.
Those overnighters and the value they created mean very different things to someone who has equity vs the rest of us. As you can tell I’m a little bitter still, I realise now this amounts to wage theft and violates various protections we have in law - I just wish I had known at the time :(
> you're essentially saying (or it is being interpreted this way by many) "Do the time, it worked for me!"
I’m not saying that. I’m saying doing the time isn’t equivalent to abuse. The facts and circumstances matter, e.g. who is doing it, how often it’s required, and what everyones’ stakes are.
I had equity in the outfit, I made my first million from it, and again, I had fun. If the CEI were at home partying, it would have been a different story. But we were all there. Kidding, coding and trying to keep something we were building together alive.