I learned that VCs aren't my friends the hard way... they stole my company from me and left me with nothing.
I discovered a promising new medical treatment- a small molecule drug with impressive experimental results. My name is on the patent and my co-inventors decided to form a startup and gave me co-ownership/stock, although I did some work to help get the company started I didn't want to leave my current job to be involved in full time running the startup at the level they were.
They got big VC funding and the VCs reformed the startup as a new company. During the pandemic lockdown, trying to work at home while parenting a toddler with no childcare, I was sent a form to sign by a new VC firm funding the company, and I was so stressed with the pandemic situation that I just trusted them and signed it without reading it.
The VCs cut me out entirely... just deleted my shares and ownership of a company based on tech I invented and patented. I can't revoke the patent rights either, because they already had a contract licensing it from my employer.
I've spread the story around the biotech startup community in person, but can't share it here without de-anonymizing my HN account, which I would rather not do.
I discovered a promising new medical treatment- a small molecule drug with impressive experimental results. My name is on the patent and my co-inventors decided to form a startup and gave me co-ownership/stock, although I did some work to help get the company started I didn't want to leave my current job to be involved in full time running the startup at the level they were.
They got big VC funding and the VCs reformed the startup as a new company. During the pandemic lockdown, trying to work at home while parenting a toddler with no childcare, I was sent a form to sign by a new VC firm funding the company, and I was so stressed with the pandemic situation that I just trusted them and signed it without reading it.
The VCs cut me out entirely... just deleted my shares and ownership of a company based on tech I invented and patented. I can't revoke the patent rights either, because they already had a contract licensing it from my employer.