Ask HN: Waiving my voting rights as part of employment termination?

Ask HN: Waiving my voting rights as part of employment termination?
4 by wenicks | 3 comments on Hacker News.
I'm a co-founder of company that has had a small seed round. My other co-founders now want me out because now that I've finished the product for them they want a much bigger team and to raise more money. Getting 2/3 of my equity back as part of the clawback is a perfect way to do that without diluting the original investors and themselves. However, they would like me to sign a release including waiving my voting rights that I would have as someone with significant interest given I have >10% in the company vested so far. In return to signing this they would give me a modest severance covering a couple of months pay and also releasing my IP as open source. They also said they would facilitate selling my shares at the next round which could be worth half a million at that point. I'm not so sure about this last point. The most important thing is that I secure a way for me to procure an exit. I know the investors would naturally want to buy me out to get rid of dead wood, but maybe by taking my voting rights away my 2 co-founders are ensuring that I don't get notified when they are investing and therefore won't be in touch to negotiate an exit at the next round. Since I would likely have to offer these shares at a discount to the investors it would essentially undercut any offer they would have. Since I would not have any voting rights maybe the investors would be less interested in buying me out in the first place. Why do you think they want me to not have my voting rights? I'm considering continuing negotiations on that basis but insisting that we agree on stipulations that ensure I am notified of all investment, and perhaps even a stipulation ensuring that any investment round should include an x percentage of my shares - forcing them to include me but also conceding to them protection I guess they want to ensure the investors are not scared off by any eagerness on my part to sell.