Don Valentine from Sequoia Capital and Cisco’s founders, Len Bosack and Sandy Lerner, discuss Len and Sandy’s termination in this rare video: (Update: Google took the video down. Thank you universe. There are still some choice quotes below. If anyone has a copy of the video online or a transcript, please email us at nandn@venturehacks.com.)
We don’t know the actual facts of the matter and we don’t care who is “right”. The lesson here is that, right or wrong, you don’t want to look back and feel the way Len and Sandy do (except for the many millions they made).
There is no such thing as a “bad” deal as long as you understand the deal’s pros, cons, and possible outcomes. But Len and Sandy, by their own admission, did not. We’ll discuss how to avoid Len and Sandy’s fate in an upcoming hack. Knowledge is power.
Some interesting quotes from the video:
“Len and I were not [savvy].” – Sandy Lerner video→
“I would strongly advise anybody watching this program not to do [what we did]… get your own [personal] lawyer.” – Sandy Lerner →
“One day… seven vice-presidents of Cisco Systems showed up in my office… the outcome of which was a very simple alternative: either I relented and allowed the president to fire Sandy Lerner or they, all seven, would quit.” – Don Valentine →
“[Sandy and Len] urgently sold their shares in Cisco at a time when the valuation of the company was a mere $1B.” – Don Valentine →
# Sohail · Jan 4, 2008
That is awful. You can tell how demoralized Sandy feels when thinking about it.
“Get a lawyer” – smart advice :-)