Comments for Post #C27855

I gave up my career for a startup, then they demoted me

35F | Startup founder, or so I thought… Seeking advice. This started June last year, while on maternity break, the CTO (lets name hi Tom) of the company I was working with, called me, said - Hi, I am thinking of this idea for a startup, and want you as a co-founder, lets join hands, we will be incorporated within the next 2 months, I am leaving the current company next month (July). I waited for a few days and already saw upates in our company page that he has decided to resign. Foolish me also put my resignation. There was another co-founder who I have with before (lets name him Harry). We met in July, defined our MVP. Harry has his own company and a team of engineers, I have deep technical background with a PhD. We decided to use Harry’e engineers and some external interns to build the MVP. Harry and I both decided on the work be would do. October came, incorporation delayed, no mention of cap table, just vague numbers, no agreement, we meet, Tom says he already joined another company, but strictly mentions I and Harry have to be fulltime since we are the technical leads. I should have identified the red flags. We meet alternate months, Tom giving hope we are engaging with a customer soon, build MVP fast. We integrate both my and Harry’s work into a single platform in Harry’s lab. Harry takes the ownership, he built everything. Fastforward 2026, Harry and team not proficient in AI, I build AI modules, ask Harry to integrate, Harry says not now. Incorporation process starts in Jan, I am let to know better to have only two directors for now. Mind you Tom still in his new job, Harry earning from his company. I should have seen the red flags. Incorporation process still not completed, we meet again in June, I mentioned I will need a founder salary to sustain now. They agree. Customer engagements starts. July I get the biggest shock, change in narrative while discussing, i am referred as part of the “founding-team” not a co-founder. See slide decks mentioning 2 founders-11 engineers and AI scientist. I setup a call immediately, Tom and Harry be like show me what you did for the company all these months, we heard your concern about money, we will add you to the company payroll by October (vague), still no word of the co-founder/founding team dilemma, they said they will pay me a “pocket-money” as a salary, as I requested and reduce me to a glorified customer serving role, only when I confronted about my co-founder status, Tom replied we are all taking a risk (he just resigned from this job this July), both of us (Tom and Harry) not taking any pay so we will the founders and you the “senior-most” founding team member. On asking about the equity percentage, again a vague answer (its a fair number shared from the employee pool), vague esops with the standard vesting schedule. Their point -you are good with research and not product. Meanwhile on being asked about the AI features that i built to be included in the customer deployement, Harry replies - my team is taking your work as a reference and building it from scratch. I got furious. They smiled while giving me hope you will get “adjustments” when funding is in place, given higher role but mind you now you have to wear multiple hats as all members of startups do. As for ownership, everything with Harry. So at the end of wasting the last 12 months, I have no money, no ownership, stripped of my work with a smile that - this is all we can do for you know, leave it or take it. What do I do now? I have no job at hand, have enough funds to survive another 6 months. They want me to front all customer engagements and shield the engineering team and Harry because when they speak, they only confuse people. I get not technical involvement, no ownership of deliverables even though I helped build the core features. Two options : Bury my dignity, take the job for peanuts package, search for another job in the mean time. Or, Deny it right-away, rebuild myself, take this 12 months gap as a learning and apply for new jobs? PS: looking only for remote jobs now since I have a toddler. Advice appreciated.