Oftentimes, the conversation is more like, "Sign this or we're shutting down and starting a new company."
But yeah. It does go down that way more often than many people know.
In fairness though, one thing I think a lot of people don't realize is that someone must've gone to bat for employees when documents like that show up. I can pretty much guarantee you that the greedy bastards in the room wanted to shut down, or layoff, and reorganize with just the employees that they needed.
Someone in the room had to say, "Hey guys, let's try this!" And that someone took a real risk at being seen as "not a team player" so to speak. (It was likely someone powerful. What I've seen is that it can be everything from a powerful VC of the religious variety, all the way to your more idealistic founder types.)
But yeah. It does go down that way more often than many people know.
In fairness though, one thing I think a lot of people don't realize is that someone must've gone to bat for employees when documents like that show up. I can pretty much guarantee you that the greedy bastards in the room wanted to shut down, or layoff, and reorganize with just the employees that they needed.
Someone in the room had to say, "Hey guys, let's try this!" And that someone took a real risk at being seen as "not a team player" so to speak. (It was likely someone powerful. What I've seen is that it can be everything from a powerful VC of the religious variety, all the way to your more idealistic founder types.)