Startups (businesses in general) are a game and the employees are resources.

Don’t take it so personally. I did once too.

If the employees think they know better, there’s nothing stopping them from starting their own businesses and destroying their boss.

> Don’t take it so personally. I did once too.

This is easier said than done.

The founders of many startups are extremely charismatic. They can get you to sacrifice your personal / family life and work long hours by dangling the big pay day in front of you.

The second startup I worked at let the first 8 employees buy into the company for Class A shares. These in theory were worth more than the Class B shares I was given. This later led to some marital issues when one guy invested $100K into the startup based on the founder taking everyone out to dinner and assuring the wives it was a great idea. Then 3 years later they have turned down 2 possible sales, no exit plan in site, and that $100K would have been useful for the children's tuition who are about to go to college.

I write these posts are warnings to people who get excited about the appeal of working for a startup.

So I would really love to hear the author talk about what his employees thought about turning down the deal and how much money they would have got.

Yeah, just don’t get emotionally invested in a chance of paying off your mortgage immediately. Don’t get your hopes up about materially bringing down your retirement age.

It isn’t reasonable to expect the founders to do an employee’s bidding when it comes to selling a company, but it is reasonable for the employees to feel emotionally invested.