Ex 500px employee here.<p>Oleg is a good guy, as in I'd love to be (and have been) his friend, but he really can't run a company. He's impossible to work for.<p>Investors put project management in place (more than once) which he systematically destroyed (firing, pushing so hard they quit, whatever). I'm not sure why he did this, I think he thought he was more effective in working with the team. The issue with this is that his measure of "effective" was seemingly hours spent in the office.<p>It was not uncommon to get a project (see: portfolios.500px.com, multiple versions of the IOS app) and have oleg set an impossible deadline. Because of his management style, just about every rails dev in Toronto has been through the company. They seem to go through waves of employees (40+ down to 15 and back again) every six months to a year.<p>It really sucks to see a founder be pushed out, but I think this can have a happy ending for 500px, and for Oleg, if he chooses to learn from this scenario.
Wow. That must really suck. The 'people that he trusted the most' clearly points at some very hard feelings there.<p>If your co-founder and investors together have a controlling interest these things can and do happen. In a way this was in the cards when they appointed (presumably with his consent, otherwise there would have been a confrontation earlier) a new CEO, after that you're going to have to play ball or leave. Still, it's tough for this to happen to anybody, especially if you're the one that led the company to where it is today.<p>I really hope for the 500px investors and other co-founder that they don't make any major mistakes in the next year because an ex-CEO minority shareholder with a grudge is not going to be easy to placate if you mess up.<p>They will be walking on thin ice.
I'm sure he wasn't tossed out to the unemployment line. Startup founders don't always make good company CEO's. Steve Jobs sucked the first time around too in many ways; it took 10 years more time for him to learn how to lead and was a different person the second time around. Even he is an exception, not all people learn from their mistakes or even get a second chance. But startup founders are always able to start another company these days even if they got removed from the previous one.
I remember meeting Andy on a plane to SFO. I've run into him before at Extreme Startups. He was on his way to a board meeting at A16Z, and I was on my way to leave Instagram. They needed an Android lead. After a few meetings, I ultimately decided to pursue my own startup.<p>I think one of those meetings was with Oleg over the phone. Intelligent guy from what I gathered. I'm sure he'll bounce back, though I'm not sure it's very wise to be so public about this so quickly, when emotions are raw and high.<p>500px is definitely one of the better known startups here in Toronto. They have a great product, they just need to settle on a product direction and execute. The comments about employee churn aren't surprising to me. And the unfortunate part about startups is that failure is typically the result of internal turmoil, so here's hoping they iron it all out quickly.
No matter how justified this decision was, this has to be rough for him. I wonder if it's harder in a smaller startup scene (Toronto) than it would be in a place like Silicon Valley.<p>(I love 500px; hopefully this will lead to a more successful company in the long run.)
This is why you don't give up control of your company no matter how nice things seem. Founders should maintain absolute control over 3 out of 5 board seats. The Parker rule.<p>Whatever his flaws the company wouldn't exist without him. His investors knew who he was before they invested. They should be forced to negotiate. They should not be able to fire him.<p>A16Z is an investor in 500px. They claim to support founders so I'm sure they will make a public statement explaining how they tried to help this guy but were outvoted.