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well, its been a pretty busy day - at present it looks like its going to be a mix of the two. the financing for the startup has run into some legal issues in the red-tape...essentially, the consortium wants to retain an exhorbitant amount of control in relation to the amount of $$$ that they are offering. particularly as its not a grant, per say, but a loan with could be traded in for non-diluted stock depending on the cash flow situation with the company after a period of a year and a half. the primary principals are not interested in signing the company away on these terms - an action which i fully endorse. i've got royalties and equity in the company at stake as well.
so, as it stand i will likely be going to the research institution for a period of time (obstensibly 1 year), while we put the company together on terms that we can live with. with everything hitting the fan at the last second, no one wants to rush. we're negotiating a deal that would leave me on retainer with the company until its ready to push off - in the meantime, we're going to be writing proposals to outside sources of funding. i have some flex time in the position that i would be taking with the institution, and we'll just have to play it as it goes. there are other opportunities that i am looking into as well, so what it breaks down to is that el pigglet is going to be more busy than he's been up to this point. can you say time management?
i think this route probably works out for everyone in the long term - the principals indicated that they would stomach a deal they were uncertain of, if i pushed for it to go through. that's pretty awesome - but its not worth it, for any of us. i'm not looking at this development as a short-term prospect, but as an opportunity that has real growth potential. not only financially, but also in terms of real impact. if we have a setback of a few months to iron out the finances, then that's what we have to do. its not the direction i'd necessarily like to be taking at this point in time, but pragmatically speaking its what needs to happen. i'm quite excited about the opportunities that i'm working on for future developments, but for now i've got to have a salary that allows me to exist in the meantime.
roach - i'm the same way. i'm not very good at working on assignments that i can't develop some level of personal attachment to. this is going to be a challenge in the position that i will likely be taking. there are fundamental technological aspects that i am very interested in - but as i've said, i have to focus on the environmental aspects of the job and not the actual long-term project. it puts me in a bit of a bind - but i guess we're going to see how it pans out. at this point, its not really within my hands - when you cut through all the crap and get to the reality of the situation at hand. i'm a little upset at this turn of events, but it was not completely unexpected...obviously.
DDDave - that's exactly my concern. its going to be "interesting" if the company gets the funding in place two months from now and wants to move forward. i'll essentially be in a position of resigning my post prematurely at the institution, which i would feel pretty bad about - or letting someone else pick up my gravy. i fucking like my gravy. i may be able to negotiate a deal to do the work for the company while i'm still at the institution - and i'm going to try to work these eventualities into my contract with the startup. at this time, i'm the guy...but if i can't extricate myself from the work i would be taking on, and they have to move...well, its going to be tricky figuring out how to be an effective part of the team. regardless, that will have to be dealt with when it happens, because given the landscape of events, i don't really have much of a choice.
thanks for the replies. i don't do this whole "new thread" thing very often - so its nice to see how others view the situation.
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You don't love me, you just love my piggy style
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