Anyone who worked at a startup then got acquired by a big company?

I was working in a startup, but I left only after a couple of years. 😅 That startup got acquired by a big company some years after I left. My co-workers who stayed till the acquisition, their life changed in two ways at acquisition: 1. Each of them got USD $1 million cash in exchange for the e-sops / equity they owned 2. On acquisition, their salaries immediately got doubled by the acquiring company, in line with the company's salary bands So there, that's how lives change on acquisition. 😄

Yeah, but don’t expect much. I have never heard any employees making a huge sum from this. It’s usually the founding engineers who gets privileges to convert their Esops.

I was working with a startup that got funded in Dec 2019. Few months later COVID started. Our funds lasted till Oct 2020. Then our whole team was acquired by our biggest client. They created a dept for us in their company. Initially it felt like switch from Lamborghini to Maruti 800 workwise. At startup, everything happens so quickly. But at a full fledged IT company, i was shocked with the "raise a ticket" culture. Even small permission requires tickets. Everything slowed down. Small things took days. This eventually affected my work. I got tardy and couldn't work for more than 1 hr continuously as compared to hours at startup.

How did it change lives? Dude brace for impact, role can be declared as 'redundant'. Start running!

I have 3 acquisition experiences: 1. ESOPs liquidated. Some people made crores and some made lakhs. 2. Salaries matched to existing employees + all benefits 3. Slow down due to processes & approvals 4. Consolidation of teams & applications which might make you redundant over 1.5-2 years.

My friend IIT madara MTech was working in a startup earning 25LPA got laid off with severance of 6 months when it got acquired by google

More context: We are a super small team less than 10 employees

Worked in a small hyperlocal media startup for 6-7 months as their only Android engineer . The startup failed to raise series funding and was later acquired by one of the largest news aggregator in the country . I was naive at the time hence didn’t had any esop options and there wasn’t much of a salary increment too. Left after 3 months to join another organisation

I had an experience where the company was acquired by a corporate. Usually the news hit way before, but the acquisition part takes forever. For us it took about 2.5 years two get the email id. Nothing changed, except the ceos of the start up stepped down. I’m guessing they were paid like crazy. Still use the same start email id and no extra benefits added

We went through an acquisition last year, honestly it sucks for newer employees. The work culture and rewards turns out as nightmare. The saddest part is they completely changed the product roadmap, narrow down to only fewer features post acquisition, although almost everyone got some decent hikes and retention bonuses🥲

Was the first employee of Fintech startup that got acquired by a Public Finance org. At time of acquisition the total team size was about 35. ESOPs got converted but at 1/10th price. Salary got revised as per the Bands. Some good folks got promoted to keep salary intact. Many including me were bored to death with the company culture of Sloth speed work. On positive side most learnt very deeply about Compliance, Security, Sebi.

I was working for a start up and it got acquired, we didn't get anything but our in hand got reduced since they take out gratuity from CTC, in startup they didn't. Here is the things that got impacted The working hour increased from 8 to 9 "Ticketing system" got introduced, so they can close without any comments or resolution Work slowed down cuz of approval culture Tracking employee time was on another level So i called quit, currently in an another start and it's profitable. I got 100%+ raise from last drawn salary at acquired jail.

This is a good opportunity, just ensure you get the right profile in acquired organisation

Went through two acquisitions. There was always a salary hike, some sum from the equity (life changing for early employees) but what majorly mattered was our ability to establish ourselves inside the company, create relationships and value. The leadership is not always going to show you the way to do that. Most of my colleagues from the first acquisition and still in the same company, only a couple switched to startups. While the second acquisition, most people except the founders and founder -1s have been laid off. But generally work slows down, politics increase, some people might give up and switch for smaller teams while some will enjoy the perks if they get any.