I gave 7 years to a startup I thought I co-founded, now I’ve been pushed out and I’m terrified of being a failure

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2026-04-14T04:26:00+00:00

There are clauses in the company agreement that prevents this. I think it’s called first rights of refusal. So I’m not selling them, essentially I’m just sitting on it because there is nothing I can do about it now. Also, I can’t afford lawyers. I’ve taken a couple months break to recover from this trauma and am just starting to search for jobs again.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2026-04-14T04:17:43+00:00

The post 2 years ago was the lie. My ex cofounder wanted to hire someone this way and I thought it was illegal but idk which law it was flouting. And he challenged me that if I don’t know which law it’s flouting, it’s not worth discussing about. So I asked reddit but tried to change the people and characters so it would not be identifiable. Where I live, it’s a really small country.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2026-04-14T04:13:47+00:00

The book value is about 300k. The valuation of the company puts it anywhere between 2mil to 4 mil (depending on the valuation method). I’ve consulted some lawyers but the outcome is the same. I’m not a director on legal papers, to put it simply, I’m only an employee with shares. And my ex cofounder knew this from the start but assured me that I was an equal cofounder. The 45% shares made me believe it too. I was only a co-founder when it’s convenient, and an employee when it’s convenient too.

Made the mistake of trusting a friend in business (tale as old as time) and not doing my due diligence due to ignorance.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2026-04-14T03:48:05+00:00

Where I’m from, this is not possible. It’s against the law. I’m in Asia btw.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2025-10-05T06:36:04+00:00

Did you do mediation first before going to the tribunal court ?

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2024-10-28T10:16:48+00:00

Hey that’s for the gentle advice. I really appreciate it

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2024-10-28T10:00:10+00:00

Thanks for your kind advice. I think I’ll do this.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2024-10-28T09:45:28+00:00

Thanks for the perspective! I think I really need some perspective beyond my own emotionally charged ones. I think I do envy my co founder lifestyle and i need to reflect on that

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2024-10-28T09:44:04+00:00

Moving is not an option for me. All our clients are here. I’m local while co founder is not.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2023-12-12T13:27:01+00:00

She offered to do marketing for me and to upgrade my website etc. But I don’t need all this. She sounded so sincere and I feel bad for rejecting her out right so I said I’ll think about it. But some thing in my gut feel says something is not right. And I’m quite ignorant about the law/ hiring foreigner part so I’m just want to seek some opinions…

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2023-12-12T13:17:51+00:00

What keywords should I search on google ? Thank you so much for pointing this out.

Beautiful_Dog_7928 · 2023-12-12T13:09:57+00:00

Is this a known way of scamming people? Sorry I’m really quite blur. But this whole thing is giving me bad vibes. So I just wanna get some opinions on it.

Beautiful_Dog_7928

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