A VC (Fred Wilson) on Zynga's "Give our stock back or you'll be fired"

http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/11/long-roadmaps.html#comment-361839182

by davidjohnstone • 15 years ago

2 2 15 years ago

pedalpete• 15 years ago

Can you explain why you gave the article that title? I don't see Fred mentioning the stock issue at all in the article, and I don't see why the founder having a 'long roadmap' means that somebody who was given an amount of stock should have to give it back.

If the road map was so large, the stock plan should have reflected that, or maybe the company hasn't reached the value metrics at the intersection of road map and stock plan.

Either way, is that the fault of the employee? Why do the employees have to give back their stock? What about Pinkus? Is he putting his stock back into the pool also?

I haven't been actively following this story. So I'm sorry if I'm still a bit ignorant about it, but my main point is that I'm not sure this article is directly referencing the stock issue.

davidjohnstone• 15 years ago

The original story is at: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3220819

The link is meant to go to a comment where somebody asks about the Zynga situation, and Fred Wilson replies with:

"i think it is an example of what the media does to companies that are in the quiet period. when mark and zynga can tell their side of the story, i think people will realize that zynga is a meritocracy where performance matters more than anything else "

And:

"please don't make the mistake of hearing only one side of the story when the other side can't talk because they are in a quiet period. when the truth can and will come out, i think you will realize what zynga does is not only fair and equitable, it is doing it in the interest of fairness for everyone. but you can do one thing. go look at Zynga's S1 and look at how much stock employees and former employees own versus how much stock Mark owns. mark is generous to a fault in my opinion."

Basically, only one side of the story has surfaced so far, and those in the know on the other side are legally bound to keep quiet for the moment.

A VC (Fred Wilson) on Zynga's "Give our stock back or you'll be fired"

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