This July I Was Fired from Simple AI (A Deeply YC Company)

Andy Trattner was fired from Simple AI, a Y Combinator-backed company, three weeks after being recruited for a leadership role and relocating from Greenville to San Francisco, where his rent increased from $1,750 to $5,700 per month. Trattner remains bullish on Simple AI and respects founders Cat and Zach, but notes the abrupt termination and the financial and emotional costs of the move.

This July I Was Fired From Simple AI a deeply YC company happy Sunday idk the right term to use. parted ways? happily diverged? supportively forcibly exited? discovered values misalignment? 3 weeks then slack access was deleted in the middle of my working at 6pm on a Tuesday? abrupt but no biggie. "fired" doesn't quite capture the beauty and fun in it. welcome input from Zach or company on the right word. hahaha – he was my manager for the 3 weeks i was on the team. i think they deleted this too, in addition to my laptop work, sadly what's the inverse of amplify ??? something antimemetic, certainly. When one moves fast and breaks things, the wisdom of Sam Altman comes to mind. First 11 minutes of this were exceptionally relevant to my recent "startup experience" – Just so the story is clear, in public: - Cat & Zach love to put "things in writing." they are self proclaimed as YC-pilled. i approve heavily. for real. - Cat called me. i was recruited to work at Simple AI. i never applied to any job posting. see below emails & legal docs. - it is better to figure out misalignment in the first month than in the 9th https://andys.blog/rare/ . trust me. I remain bullish on Simple and deeply respect Cat & Zach as operators and ICs. Whoever ends up working with them, as teammates or customers, you can expect nothing but the very best i will provide a reference at any time. call me.- salt and water dissolve over time, for me quite quickly. - when you fire people you should keep talking to them, someday, as i do https://andys.blog/ripples/ . this is just something i've been reflecting on in the past 1.5 weeks as i figure out what's next.- never reduce a human to a number. - zach knows this very well, as does Cat – see the Unreasonable Hospitality book i was gifted by my boss a few days before i got spontaneously axed. below. - this was the 3rd https://world.hey.com/tratt/moving-to-sf-erdos-style-d362b77e?ref=andys.blog time i moved to SF but the first time i was able to directly do it while paying with a company salary and the trust of heading into a leadership role to help build the FDE function and org, explicitly asked by the founders and baked into how they paid for me to live in Hotel Zeppelin for 10+ days as i apartment hunted in the craziest housing market of all time rn.- i'm so grateful for the opportunity. truly. - very much in contrast with my previous moves to SF, and in particular the original one which was super rocky and hilarious if anyone wants the full backstory and weird parallels i see from my POV. - my rent went from $1750/mo in Greenville https://greenville.substack.com/?ref=andys.blog to $5700/mo in SF https://andys.blog/sf/ . wild. - it's a great city but come on SOMA get your shit together off the sidewalks https://andys.blog/sfsmells/ . - pretty hard to break the lease given 2-3x monthly rent fine and the movings costs to get here were well north of $5k, you have to pay to ship our furniture, which got f d up in transit, broken glass in the moving pod thing, we would have to drive back and call the whole month wasted, etc etc and find a new apt back in Greenville... ultimately we kind of have to just stay in SF for the year given the investment upfront we made emotionally and physically to relocate here next to the office in South Park. - also my GF https://andys.blog/the-best-relationships/ cried as she did the 6-days solo from SC to SF driving all our junk to suddenly discover i had no job around when she was crying from the altitude in denver hahaha - on me for not taking more time to find a better-fit remote role. i guess? maybe? andytrattner.com/resume https://andytrattner.com/resume?ref=andys.blog has been updated, please help me find a new job everyone thanks lol- thankfully i just met Priya https://www.linkedin.com/in/priya-khandelwal-86b84018b/?ref=andys.blog , grateful for you yay we are neighbors near mission bay / oracle park. - also, i'm applying to YC and actually have my first good product idea ever much much better than LeanOnMe https://leanonme.chat/?ref=andys.blog , Shuffle https://shuffle.dating/?ref=andys.blog , etc - yes it is ai but mostly just Hey https://trattner.github.io/hey?ref=andys.blog + ai for fixing email. fun times, we me + hari.computer https://hari.computer/?ref=andys.blog will crush Cora.computer https://cora.computer/?ref=andys.blog - and become Seth Godin finally, - it doesn't have to be crazy at work. nor in your inbox - thankfully i just met - i am spending more time on linkedin. this one guy who raised $40M from sequoia is so funny please go upvote or leave your comments here: