BEFORE YOU

d by Friday morning, Marcus Hale had made i

from one of her earliest employees, a product designer named Carlos

is offering buyouts on our employee shares. F

without comment and call

waiting with the email on three screens and

ctly, everyone with vested shares. It's legal. It's also a flanking move. I

are we talking ab

percent." Priya's voice d

ury. Her second, a colder one, was the one she'd l

n," she said. "I'll talk t

Dan

hone. She'd told herself she'd call him

. She told him in four senten

rty minutes," he sai

It's an all-hands about

e there anyway, in the back, if that's all ri

reason to refuse

e standing against the walls. Elena stood at the front, her prepared remarks balled in her fist

he said. "I'm not going to tell you not to sell. It's your mon

act that Hale's last two portfolio companies had been sold within two year

inished, n

n we were making serum in a bathtub," he said. "I'm not selling to

A few people clapped. Then more

hands in his pockets. When their eyes met, he gave the smallest nod and m

hat was what

e employees had accepted Hale's

n the hall outside her offi

, extending one. "One sug

up. "You remember h

lena, you were remarkable in there. I've seen founders lose a

them the

d at the meeting. "Hale will try again. He doesn't stop at one move. Next he'll go after

said, and heard how stiff it sound

k a step back, giving her room. "I'll send over a risk memo to

watched until the el

bow, studying her face.

isk memo," Elena s

r head. "You're not as an

opened Daniel's memo the moment it arrived, and she read it all the way through, and wh

ad, not heart," she told

o remember which one wa

f Cha