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Ask HN: What do you do when your board member is unethical?

42 points by bluefishinit ↗ HN
After October 7th I was shocked and disappointed to find that my lead investor is on Twitter openly advocating a genocide of Palestinians, casting doubt on the number of Palestinian civilians killed and generally attacking and gaslighting everyone who's not enthusiastically looking to destroy Gaza and the West Bank.

I'm horrified, I'm worried that they're going to cause massive damage to the brand of my company and I feel terrible that the company I built is now part of a message I find truly vile.

As a founder what can I do? Most of the VC industry seems to be on the wrong side of this issue so it feels like speaking up will lead to a blacklisting (c.f. what happened to Paul Graham when he simply posted the number of dead civilians on both sides).

23 comments

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morkalork
I think the best thing to do would be close twitter.
logicalmonster
IANAL or board member or anything of the sort, and I would refrain from arguing with his personal political opinions just because there's no winner in arguing politics with him, but it might be prudent to have a little discussion about avoiding politically charged topics when in a position to publicly represent the company.

Tell your board members to do what other famous people do when they want to vent and shitpost on Twitter: create an anonymous burner account and have fun going buck wild with no trace back to you.

m_a_g
This might have legal implications, so talking with a lawyer is a great starting point.
senojsitruc
I'd start by dropping the message that he's on the "wrong side of this issue." It's clear that many people believe that's very much up for debate. Right or wrong though, he'll certainly anger one group or the other with his vocal position. That's the real issue.

If he took your position on the matter and was similarly vocal, would you have the same concern?

dmurko
"Openly advocating a genocide" definitely seems like the wrong side, no matter what many people believe is up for debate.
ajeet_dhaliwal
Yes. Is OP exaggerating? Or is the board member actually saying such things?
philomath_mn
100% depends on what specifically the board member said.

If they openly said "kill every Palestinian" then that is a problem.

On the other hand, in the current moment, it is very popular to interpret a wide variety of pro-Israel statements as "advocating genocide".

megous
People say it a lot these days. Kill them all. Or drive them to the Sinai desert. Or flatten Gaza.

It's really common, and it's an advocacy for an international crime/or war crimes, not an "political opinion" as many here suggest. Just like advocacy for any other crime would probably not be brushed aside as a "political opinion". "All black women in my city should be raped, because [some felt injustice]."

When advocated for from people in real power, or with a lot of money and influence, or from bosses in companies, it's quite chilling.

matthewfelgate
He's investing his money.

You don't have to agree with his politics.

bluefishinit
I tell myself this so I can sleep at night. It's hard though, real people are dying. Beyond that, there's a very real movement from many VCs to blacklist people who aren't pro-Israel. Even going so far as to find employees that have Palestinian flags in their bio and make a spreadsheet of "tainted" companies.

It feels like we're at war. A war I didn't want and have nothing to do with other than I know enough about history to sympathize with the Palestinians and to be generally against civilian death. There's a huge rift in our industry and it's impacting everyone (including employees) and many VCs are driving it.

ipaddr
If you are not sleeping at night over this get a hold of yourself. This is not your war and you have no control over it. Unless you have some power to free the hostages and turn Gaza supports against hamas I think you need to step back and focus on your product/customer.
baggy_trough
Can you give a specific example of what your investor has stated that constitutes "openly advocating a genocide of Palestinians"?
anonHash
Make your position clear on the issue. Openly and assertively state the position, especially if it knowingly conflicts with another person who the company is affiliated with. This way you have distanced yourself with the other person.

As far as blowback to your brand because you did not support the "right" side, it seems that we are ending up in a position where even a neutral side is taken up as being part of the other side.

All you can do is acknowledge the loss on "EACH" (read, not "both") side. And acknowledge the turmoil on each side. And acknowledge the human struggle (not war struggle) on each side. And acknowledge the polarization of 'both' sides.

And then stress to look forward to the end of the conflict.

Plus, also tell your board members after you have made this post clear, that posting messages opposite to the position of the company via profiles that lead back to the company will be taken as to be in conflict with the values of the company.

Jiro
Did he say the exact words "I advocate a genocide of Palestinians"?

If he did, post a quote. If he didn't, you shouldn't be treating him as if he did.

And my bet is heavily on the "he didn't" side.

mortallywounded
A political opinion you don't agree with is far from "unethical". It may be unprofessional though.

If I had a dollar for every coworker or business partner I ever had a disagreement with...

saluki
50%+/- of your investors, co-workers and customers aren't going to agree with you on most issues. I understand it can be troubling to work with someone who has a different view but I try to let everyone have their opinion and just ignore the polarized political landscape when it comes to business.

Granted there are red lines where maybe you just don't want to be involved. But keep in mind every company, startup and set of investors is going to have people coming down on both sides of the many issues everyone is dealing with today.

I try to be positive and keep an open mind and not get involved in sharing my opinions on hot button topics in my business life. It's a tough world out there right now.

AbuelitaMia
Corporation is a mechanism to provide profits to the shareholders, while staying compliant with the appropriate rules and regulations.

The corporations is not a machine to optimize for personal views of the founders, unless there are no other shareholders, or unless all the other shareholders are in agreement (something that might be impossible to achieve when amount of shareholders crosses certain threshold).

In other words, if you are accepting outside shareholders into your company, you are no longer allowed to make any decisions for any other reason than profit, not unless other shareholders would consent to it. This is the law.

However, as a shareholder, you have the right to choose who you would like to have on the board, for any sort of arbitrary reasons.

codingdave
That is not the law. Corporations are allowed to pursue any purpose they want. Many of them do pursue profit, but that is not legally required. (And that question has been taken all the way to the Supreme Court.)