These kind of arrangements generally get the investors their money back plus a modest return. The employees generally don’t get much, relative to the risk they took.
Buying the team and having them all quit is such a bad outcome for AWS, especially they would not keep any of the IP, which is owned by the DuckDB Foundation. I don't think they would be that short-sighted.
Is profit sharing, like what you're implying, actually happening? If so, in what quantity?
I can’t say that’s true for me and my company. It’s not all lies or anything, it’s a fragmented view that emphasizes conflict and the most visible 10% of what the company actually does.
It's both a great time to be gold mining in tech, and also a terrible time to be a bit employee.
What big corp is not a total mess?
The things I hear from recent AWS departures are very concerning.
On my team we were expected to work 90+ hours a week, and were told we were slackers if we were unwilling to work Sunday afternoons. But I've heard from others that some teams are a lot better.
Maybe this will be the rare case where founders survive corporate shenanigans and keep on doing their thing. But I'm bummed, as I've heard that optimism many more times than I've seen it happen.