It’s official…
After 6.5 years in various positions with Scout24 Switzerland, I have decided to leave the company and persue my own way. On January 16 I handed in my resignation, which will become effective July 31, 2007. I still have approx. 6 weeks of vacation, so I can’t say exactly as to when I will no longer be there.
I had a wonderful time there and learned a lot. Unfortunately the company does not offer a stock option plan for their employees, due to the fact, that it is part of Deutsche Telekom. So I guess it will be dificult to hold the entreprenurial employees within the group.
Good learning for my own company setup, use the “Trivadis” participation model I heard of. Employees vest shares with each year they are in the company. They can additionaly buy shares at their own expense. The company is valued independently once a year. If you leave the company, you must return your shares by the time of the next valuation and at that price. This way, the company avoids former employees to bring in new proprietors (see craigslist & ebay) and yet allows them to participate in the company growth during the time, they contribute to it.
I will be founding my own company on April 21, 2007, turned out to take longer, but was founded in September: Idealizer AG a Swiss eMedia Lab.
More on what I plan to do, the developments around this, etc. to follow… 😉