Sammy, I too totally agree. It is said "*in a well-run relay race, the baton-holder is supposed to sprint into the exchange area, only slowing down as the second runner speeds up to grab the baton*" I also think that in as much as we are in support for our friends (and Angani founders - Brian & Phares) the lesson is that we should always try to put in adequate systems in place to ensure transition is smooth. In this case, it might appear that the blame should squarely be on the 'hostile' parties (Riyaz et al - they should have ensured a smooth transition) but if the founders had put adequate documentation and systems for the prosperity of Angani, the transition would have been smoother (they are the ones who accepted the investors to join the company and should have made enough consideration for the benefit of the Angani customers/clients during the exit/ouster). Thus, it will take some time for all the aggrieved parties to regain the trust of both customers and future partners/investors based on how the current Angani situation was handled. Kennedy On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 6:27 AM, Sammy Njoroge via skunkworks < skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke> wrote:
Board room / founder coups within startups are common. Investors will always insist on control of the board to keep the business in check. They are in it for the business/money.
When it is said they invest in a person it is not because of what they've done rather what they can do.
Despite founders coming up with the idea it does not imply they are best placed to lead the business (they may gain business experience later).
Simply put Rolls Royce, Google, Apple, PayPal, Cisco, yahoo, BlackBerry have gone through a similar thing. Some amicably and some as coups. Even Facebook and twitter had co-founder coups.
The way I look at it is if Musk wasn't kicked out of X.com and Peter Thiel put in control he'd probably have run it to the ground and we wouldn't have PayPal, space X, Tesla and Solar city. He went on to oust Tesla's founder and grow the company
Even Apple would probably have gone broke with steve jobs at the helm back in 1984.
Some good reads - https://hbr.org/2008/02/the-founders-dilemma
http://techcrunch.com/2010/12/31/how-to-avoid-getting-fired-from-your-own-co...
http://www.folklore.org/StoryView.py?project=Macintosh&story=The_End_Of_An_E...
If you call this greed how about reading up on preferred shares that have a liquidation preference :) I hope the founders at Angani had done their homework.
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