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If I do this again, I’d wait to tell my team about the sale until it’s a done deal, but I’d also make sure the team knows that an acquisition is always a possibility. I’d explain before I even start looking for a buyer that an acquisition might happen, and that the team won’t necessarily know it’s happening. If it did, I’d prioritize a buyer whose vision aligns with the team’s interests, as I did with TinyPilot.> This strategy is not ideal or fair to everyone, but it feels like the least bad of many flawed options.
That's better than the norm, but I agree it's not entirely satisfying.
For sales larger than the one the author wrote about, I wonder whether the possible problems that the author mentioned could be averted by making the sale a win for the employees.
Ideally, the employees already would have enough vested equity, for the sale to be positively life-changing. But if not, maybe, as the sale is planned, everyone gets issued RSUs that vest immediately if and when a deal closes? Or bonuses? Or maybe the sale terms include retaining everyone for at least a year at double compensation?
(More generally, I believe in cutting in early startup employees on equity in a more significant way than is conventional. And maybe the imminent-sale alignment risks are another instance in which significant pieces of the pie would help and be appropriate.)
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