Toptal CEO responds to criticism

Taso Du Val, Toptal, Funding, Legal

Toptal’s CEO was accused of not giving options to employees who felt they were entitled to it, even though their legal agreements stated they were conditional. I asked him to do an interview, expecting him to say no way, but instead he said, glad to.

My summary of his response. Regarding investors: I’m not going to raise unnecessary funds just so their debt could convert to equity. Be patient.

Regarding employees: I keep telling people not to work here if they’re doing it for a stock windfall. Regarding his cofounder: Legally, I can’t say anything.

Taso Du Val

Toptal

Taso Du Val is the founder of Toptal, which enables start-ups, businesses, and organizations to hire freelancers from a growing network of top talent in the world.

Andrew: Hey there, freedom fighters. My name is Andrew Warner. I’m the founder of Mixergy, where I interview entrepreneurs about how they built their businesses. And joining me is, I’ll be fully open with you, a sponsor of mine who was in the news, and I didn’t expect him to be here. Last week, there was this huge article on the information about . . . and the information never has these huge articles that people spread around because it’s a paid site, but I bought a membership just to read this article that everyone’s talking about, about how Toptal, this company that most people didn’t realize how big it was. Even though I’ve been saying they’re huge, guys, pay attention to them. Most people didn’t realize how big they were.

The article in the information said not only are they big, but because they’re doing so well, their investors are not going to end up getting a piece of the company. Their investors who...

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