What Happens to AI Startups When Their Founders Jump Ship for Big Tech
During a no-holds-barred Q&A, Perella's employees—who'd previously known him only as general counsel—grilled the new boss about Character's future. 'What are we going to keep doing? What are we going to stop doing? How are we going to shift our resources?' Perella recalls them asking. 'Having your founder leave is a big change,' he says. Still, he insists the company is doing well by the standards of startups that have gone through a novel form of transaction known as a reverse acquihire. 'We were left much better positioned than some of the other folks.'
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