1) It sounds like the CEO did in fact build a company that could go public and result in a cash-out for you, putting some of the cash you felt you deserved as a founder to good use and returning it to you many-fold.
2) You were in fact lucky to be making a "founder's salary." Many founder's don't make anything.
While you may have been handled badly by a gruff VC, you also ended up with a smashing multi-million dollar exit, at least to a significant extent because of him and the CEO he brought in. I should think you would be at least a little grateful. To me it sounds like whining.
Bottom line is, you were either naive enough to hire someone you didn't need for more than you needed to, or you were knowledgeable of critical deficits in your execution capabilities and you filled those, and gave up what it took to get there. Either way, the VC may have been right.
Comments
Maybe just to be devils advocate, but:
1) It sounds like the CEO did in fact build a company that could go public and result in a cash-out for you, putting some of the cash you felt you deserved as a founder to good use and returning it to you many-fold.
2) You were in fact lucky to be making a "founder's salary." Many founder's don't make anything.
While you may have been handled badly by a gruff VC, you also ended up with a smashing multi-million dollar exit, at least to a significant extent because of him and the CEO he brought in. I should think you would be at least a little grateful. To me it sounds like whining.
Bottom line is, you were either naive enough to hire someone you didn't need for more than you needed to, or you were knowledgeable of critical deficits in your execution capabilities and you filled those, and gave up what it took to get there. Either way, the VC may have been right.