Update: Jeffrey Kalmikoff is not a Threadless founder, as originally stated in this post. Threadless was founded by Jake Nickell. Jeffrey Kalmikoff joined Threadless 3 years later.

Whether it’s Spreadshirt, Etsy or Threadless – the game starts to look pretty obvious: first the founders proudly announce a big financing round, then they get very politely asked to give up their top management positions, and latest after some months they leave the company entirely.

Last week Threadless founder COO Jeffrey Kalmikoff, one of the leading heads, made his departure public (“Nude once again”).

In November 2006, Threadless announced a surprising financing round. In May 2008 the founders gave way to a professional CEO.

Fred Wilson described the way the game usually works last Fall using Etsy as an example (“Etsy Investor Gives an Inside Peek”).

Usually although the founders indeed have more shares in the company (see also Jana Eggers’ comment in Spreadshirt’s case), it’s a tenuous argument. The efforts made by the founders during the startup phase is reflected in the valuation at the time of financing – afterwards what generally counts is who has contributed the most capital.

Originally posted in German by Jochen Krisch, adapted for excitingcommerce.com by Jason Soo.