People who destroy entrepreneurial value are the scum of the earth

There are many business owners who want to sell for a variety of reasons -- divorce, need a large amount of cash, tired of running the business, etc...

Almost every entrepreneur has a "price" at which he'd be willing to sell. If this consulting business changed around their pricing scheme and took a percent cut of a successful sale, where everything was transparent, there are many people who would find value in this.

For a smalltime entrepreneur, of course it doesn't make sense to drop $30k on the HOPE that these guys find a buyer. However, if your company is making $1M in profit per year, it may well be worth MORE than $30k upfront to hire well-connected brokers to get multiple parties to bid up a purchase price for your company.

A few examples from my years working in Silicon Valley from the legal side (where, unfortunately, a lot of this crops up):

In the days when founders were generally less informed than they are today, I would often see them fall prey to "consultants" who would promise to open doors to funding and the like in exchange for a significant equity stake in their venture, only to show themselves to be nothing but B.S.ers.

I have seen lower-tier VCs who cared not a whit about their reputations take control, fire the founders and do a 100 to 1 reverse stock split in exchange for modest additional funding, reducing the entire equity holdings of the founders to less than 1% of the company in one fell swoop.

I have seen founders sell in acquisitions, take their full compensation in the form equity in the acquirer that had to vest over 4 years but without acceleration protection in the event of termination without cause, be told that "we wouldn't do this unless we wanted you to succeed," and then get fired within a few months as the acquiring company took years' worth of work from them for what amounted to a pittance.

I have seen a young founder build up incredible value in a new venture and, after a few years of devoting everything to it and building nice revenues, take in a "partner" who was a "player" in Silicon Valley, only to have that person maneuver him down from an initial 100% ownership stake to 50% to 5% and, finally, when a $30M buyout is about to happen, grant to himself massive amounts of additional stock (all for bogus reasons) to put the original founder under 1% right on the eve of the acquisition.

I could go on and on but the lesson in all of these is that entrepreneurs should always be vigilant to ensure that the deals they do are prudent and do not expose them to this sort of exploitation - it can come at you from all sides.

Very nice piece, by the way, Ryan - I find your posts consistently insightful.

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