<story><title>Termination of the certificates business of StartCom</title><url>https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.security.policy/LM1SpKHJ-oc</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>DyslexicAtheist</author><text>I worked as Director of Engineering for an investor[1] who helped bootstrap StartCom. StartCom was back then the first successful firm from the Authenticity Institute portfolio. I joined Authenticity because I thought it could really shake up the certification industry.&lt;p&gt;I quit after 6 months when I learned that the equity based contracts were designed to scam the engineers that I hired. Also I dared to raise concerns over bringing StartCom founder Eddy Nigg back into the company for advise on how to build a sound infrastructure (fit for ETSI &amp;amp; WebTrust certification).&lt;p&gt;Management there has a thing for &amp;quot;hiring struggling entrepreneurs&amp;quot; and then phishing them for their ideas with promise of equity which is never paid out. There were also a range of other issues such as racist coworkers (which I fired in my first week) and a refusal from the founder to face up to these issues.&lt;p&gt;One applicant was made promises, then stalled on the contract and when she quit her original job was told on her first day of work that her salary negotiation hasn&amp;#x27;t even started. I was let go (or I quit with a bang depending who you ask) because I dared to point out they&amp;#x27;re all crooks.&lt;p&gt;I personally don&amp;#x27;t see how trust can every be implemented in systems when it is owned by a company which can be acquired with M&amp;amp;A and the same bad apples who cash out from projects are then investing in similar companies.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wes_Kussmaul&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Wes_Kussmaul&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Termination of the certificates business of StartCom</title><url>https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/mozilla.dev.security.policy/LM1SpKHJ-oc</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>creshal</author><text>StartCom will always have a special place in my heart – they&amp;#x27;re the only company that I had to outright bribe to do business with.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand… I really won&amp;#x27;t miss &amp;#x27;em.</text></comment>