<story><title>Sell for half a billion and get nothing (2021)</title><url>https://www.fundablestartups.com/blog/half-a-billion</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>justinlloyd</author><text>I am currently working with a start-up where the company is incapable of meeting its capex obligations. The founder raised a good amount of capital from investors a few years ago, and that provided a decent runway, but there&amp;#x27;s no traction, no KPIs, and whilst we&amp;#x27;ve built some impressive technology, impressive technology does not bring in revenue. One of the problems (amongst many) is that the primary stakeholder has a perfectionist attitude to the user experience. Which in a start-up is deadly.&lt;p&gt;Now, as I said, the start-up cannot meet its capex obligations and the current funding round is looking grim. It is definitely going to be a down round and it ain&amp;#x27;t going to be pretty should a term sheet get thrust under our collective noses. To get the developers motivated to stick around a little longer, &amp;quot;generous&amp;quot; equity packages are on offer, with a request to convert over-due back pay and future payments too, into equity .&lt;p&gt;When I sought transparency - &amp;quot;Can I see the cap table?&amp;quot; - &amp;quot;Can I see the terms of the investors?&amp;quot; - &amp;quot;Can I see anything?&amp;quot; - the answer was invariably &amp;quot;no.&amp;quot; Essentially, they&amp;#x27;re asking me to make a nominal investment of over $200K in the company, accepting common stock in lieu of pay without any insight into the financials or the terms provided to other investors.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s worth noting that I had previously given the start-up a sweetheart deal, significantly discounting my usual rate and offering generous payment terms, in the spirit of support and belief in the project. This makes the current scenario even more disheartening. Compound that with what has become an overall toxic environment that I have euphemistically called &amp;quot;challenging&amp;quot; when asked to sum it up, and the future isn&amp;#x27;t bright enough to wear shades.&lt;p&gt;Now this isn&amp;#x27;t exactly my first rodeo. I&amp;#x27;ve seen the beautiful side of start-ups and liquidity events. And I&amp;#x27;ve seen the dreadfully ugly side too. Hard lessons learned. And the ugly side shows up way more than the pretty one.&lt;p&gt;I swear, some entrepreneurs must think I stepped off the boat yesterday.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>eschneider</author><text>If they owe you back pay and they&amp;#x27;re not being transparent about their &amp;quot;equity offer&amp;quot; you need to take steps to get in line for your money NOW. Talk to a lawyer. Assuming this is the US since you&amp;#x27;re quoting dollars: if you&amp;#x27;re an employee, a complaint to the state Dept of Labor about back pay usually puts you first in line for money. If you&amp;#x27;re on contract, you might be able to get a lein on...something of value. Seriously, don&amp;#x27;t wait on this if you expect to ever get paid.</text></comment>
<story><title>Sell for half a billion and get nothing (2021)</title><url>https://www.fundablestartups.com/blog/half-a-billion</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>justinlloyd</author><text>I am currently working with a start-up where the company is incapable of meeting its capex obligations. The founder raised a good amount of capital from investors a few years ago, and that provided a decent runway, but there&amp;#x27;s no traction, no KPIs, and whilst we&amp;#x27;ve built some impressive technology, impressive technology does not bring in revenue. One of the problems (amongst many) is that the primary stakeholder has a perfectionist attitude to the user experience. Which in a start-up is deadly.&lt;p&gt;Now, as I said, the start-up cannot meet its capex obligations and the current funding round is looking grim. It is definitely going to be a down round and it ain&amp;#x27;t going to be pretty should a term sheet get thrust under our collective noses. To get the developers motivated to stick around a little longer, &amp;quot;generous&amp;quot; equity packages are on offer, with a request to convert over-due back pay and future payments too, into equity .&lt;p&gt;When I sought transparency - &amp;quot;Can I see the cap table?&amp;quot; - &amp;quot;Can I see the terms of the investors?&amp;quot; - &amp;quot;Can I see anything?&amp;quot; - the answer was invariably &amp;quot;no.&amp;quot; Essentially, they&amp;#x27;re asking me to make a nominal investment of over $200K in the company, accepting common stock in lieu of pay without any insight into the financials or the terms provided to other investors.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s worth noting that I had previously given the start-up a sweetheart deal, significantly discounting my usual rate and offering generous payment terms, in the spirit of support and belief in the project. This makes the current scenario even more disheartening. Compound that with what has become an overall toxic environment that I have euphemistically called &amp;quot;challenging&amp;quot; when asked to sum it up, and the future isn&amp;#x27;t bright enough to wear shades.&lt;p&gt;Now this isn&amp;#x27;t exactly my first rodeo. I&amp;#x27;ve seen the beautiful side of start-ups and liquidity events. And I&amp;#x27;ve seen the dreadfully ugly side too. Hard lessons learned. And the ugly side shows up way more than the pretty one.&lt;p&gt;I swear, some entrepreneurs must think I stepped off the boat yesterday.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>munchler</author><text>Working without pay is the reddest of red flags in any company. It’s not even a business at that point - it’s a volunteer gig.</text></comment>