I interviewed with FoundationDB and came very close to working there. They were about as smart as you would expect the people behind that kind of technology would be--scalable distributed transactions at speeds many zeroes higher than what was thought possible--and I'm glad to see them succeed, but wondering what's going to happen to their software. Whatever secret sauce made their software I'm not convinced the market can replicate anytime soon.
I also can't help but wonder how much my options would have been worth.
I interviewed with FoundationDB last August or so and got a very paltry offer. On top of that, they wanted me to pay my relocation and cover the cost of the signing bonus clawback. My stock options (had they fully vested at the time of the Apple sale) would have been worth under $14,000. I don't think I missed much.
edit: scratch that, $23 million is the amount they raised, not the amount of their sale. Regardless, unless they sold for 10 figures, I don't have any regrets.
I also can't help but wonder how much my options would have been worth.