Things to Beware of This July 4th Weekend
What makes someone a “co-founder,” vs. a mere employee who makes a key, early contribution? This is not just semantics; it matters. After more conversations with people present at Tinder’s birth this week, I’m convinced that Wolfe has as much right to be called a co-founder as the others. …
Munoz started to say that Rad hadn’t done this solely because Wolfe was a woman. But I asked him if it wasn’t the case that Rad had shunted aside a good, if not excellent, female employee in favor of someone whose main qualification was being his “bro pal.” Munoz laughed. “I think that’s a fair interpretation of events,” he said.
“When I left [Tinder], I wrote Whitney a very long e-mail, telling her to believe in herself, that if she hadn’t done what she did for Tinder, it wouldn’t be where it was today,” Munoz said. Wolfe says in her lawsuit that after breaking up with Mateen, she saw her co-founder title “stripped away because she is a ‘girl,’” and she left the company in April 2014, after a Tinder party at which she says Mateen called her a “whore” in front of Rad.
One staffer told Business Insider many employees had individual meetings with HowAboutWe founders Brian Schechter and Aaron Schildkrout on Wednesday and Thursday in a glass-walled conference room. During those meetings, the staffer said they were notified they could be fired due to budgetary restrictions when the company transitions to IAC. The founders relayed that after Monday they would know “how many people can stay.” The meetings, which were meant to prepare employees for potential next steps, left employees feeling uncertain about what Monday will hold. “You could just see people crying,” the staffer said, later adding, “It was a very slow, dragged out process of notifying people, which is awful.”
One of the three who thought they were staying told the staffer things changed when they got a text from Schechter Thursday night at about 10 p.m. asking for them to call him. When they called him back, the staffer said he immediately answered with a question. “How much are you getting paid again?” They told the other staffer they informed Schechter of their salary, which included a recent raise. When he heard this number, they said Schechter changed his tune and said, “Never mind, I forgot we gave you a raise. I don’t think we can make that work. Sorry.”
Bears. Sharks. And, of course, start ups. (Of the three, the only one I’ve been ravaged by, so far.) Feel free to share your own start up, bear, or shark-related horror story in the comments.
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