Start-up founder stringing me along for a job; tried to blur personal and business lines

So, I interviewed for what I thought was a great position for an entertainment/ new media start-up in Los Angeles. Everything went well and the President (or as he calls himself, the Creative Principal) and I got along fine. This was back in February/ March 2015 or so. And, because this start-up (or more like, this particular founder) was so full of BS, I’m going to put the company initials out there as what it is – ‘SFP’

Technically, I was supposed to start working for SFP in May but the CEO of the company kept pushing the start date. Sure, it is a start-up so I totally understand why they would do that – logistical reasons, timing and what not. Either way, I had jobs at other companies who actually wanted to keep me for a longer term. It was my mistake that I didn’t stay with those companies because what happened next really left me jobless for 2 months straight and the promise of the job ended up falling through in the most unprofessional manner anyway.

We met again for the second time in late June to discuss again with the CEO once again, promising to hire and send me the contract. Days passed and I was pressing on for the contract to only get no response until he finally cracked and sent me a mysterious text with the typical/ standard line used in a lot of mind-#^*@ games played by toxic people in relationships – “We need to talk.”. Of course, I was curious and unnerved since I was wondering what the hell I did or what is going on now – aka. am I going to start working for this company or not?

So, we arranged a phone call (this was the last phone call we ever had) and he explained to me how he wanted me to be more “personally vulnerable” with him (yes, I am a girl but I don’t think that was the point) and that, after his lawyers told him some scary horror stories, it completely influenced him to change his mind in hiring me after all our dicussions since February/ March 2015. Essentially, what he was saying is that, all he needed is simply the influence of one lawyer to warn him about working with people he don’t know to change his mind.

What really bugged me was how he tried to blur personal and business lines in that phone conversation. He made it clear that he wasn’t interested in my skills or “trade secrets” that I had to offer to SFP but was instead, interested in wanting me to completely open up my personality and life as if he thought I was acting or putting up a charade (once again, no basis for any of his ridiculous speculations).

In the end, all that talk and my excitement to work for that company died along with my respect for this “President” as a boss and most of all, as a decent human being. I’m pretty sure if I got the job anyway, after such an incident, I would have no respect for him as a living being.

So, after much bugging from me – because had I not pursued the case, he was deliberately delaying a response – I was shot a final email from him (with the usual diplomatic words) claiming logistic issues when he already knew he bought into what his lawyers told him, and I had done nothing wrong to cause such distorted or unfair treatment. All I wanted, was to help build and grow that start-up as an employee (yes, I’m not even in a co-founder position). And now, those past two companies that initially wanted to keep me full-time, already found their replacements and I am still unemployed, hunting for a job again when I initially had so many offers. I.e. SFP left me hoping high and contributing a lot of initial ideas, and then tossed me aside to hang dry and unemployed, just because the CEO felt a little insecure and did not trust his own decision in making his own judgments.

I know there are a lot of start-up scams or stories out there that are mainly about co-founders and investors but honestly, I think there are a lot more stories and warnings about start-ups that are actually not so great or honest themselves, to the people they try to hire.

P.S. Because I already had a bad intuition about this CEO and his company SFP, I actually had that last phone conversation RECORDED as damning evidence of his BS, with every single word, audible. I’ll be keeping this just in case any of my suggestions or ideas in our initial discussions are used for his profit. Always protect the self, I’d say. Also, I don’t care if you figure out which company it is because I’m pretty sure they’re doing their best to change their image and keep up with their “impression management”. I only pray that the smart, talented engineer I met did not fall for this deception.