Bolt Financial's loans come due
axios.com
Bolt Financial's loans come due
1–10 of 204 posts
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#2I remember interviewing with them about 2-3 years ago. Everyone seemed very enthused, but no one was able to clearly articulate for me what it was that made their product/offerings different.
Glad I dodged that bullet
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#3> A Bolt spokesperson says that only a "single digit" number of laid-off employees took out the loans, despite more than 200 people losing their jobs, and that the aggregate amount was below $200,000. Moreover, she says the company plans to "work with" those individuals.
If the amount was less than $200k, which is about the salary for a single employee these days, Bolt should just have annulled them entirely. The PR alone would be worth more than the $200k.
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#4I remember interviewing with them about 2-3 years ago. Everyone seemed very enthused, but no one was able to clearly articulate for me what it was that made their product/offerings different. Glad I dodged that bullet
[deleted]
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#5I remember interviewing with them about 2-3 years ago. Everyone seemed very enthused, but no one was able to clearly articulate for me what it was that made their product/offerings different. Glad I dodged that bullet
ceo gives off Jim Jones vibes.
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#6> A Bolt spokesperson says that only a "single digit" number of laid-off employees took out the loans, despite more than 200 people losing their jobs, and that the aggregate amount was below $200,000. Moreover, she says the company plans to "work with" those individuals. If the amount was less than $200k, which is about the salary for a single employee these days, Bolt should just have annulled them entirely. The PR…
I am not sure that is fair -- what if someone decided to buy out their vested shares with their own money? They would be screwed while those who borrowed from Bolt wouldn't be. It is just generally problematic.
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#7> A Bolt spokesperson says that only a "single digit" number of laid-off employees took out the loans, despite more than 200 people losing their jobs, and that the aggregate amount was below $200,000. Moreover, she says the company plans to "work with" those individuals. If the amount was less than $200k, which is about the salary for a single employee these days, Bolt should just have annulled them entirely. The PR…
> Bolt should just have annulled them entirely
These loans were made cashlessly as part of an early option exercise. That is steeped deeply in the internal revenue code. The forgiven principal would be at the very least income. Then the tax benefits from the early exercise would retroactively apply with penalties and interest. All of this assuming the IRS doesn't view the move as a heads I win (if the company does well, a cashless loan produces early exercise tax benefits) tails you lose (if the company does badly, the loan is forgiven and there is no downside to the dodge).
I'm somewhat blown away by this whole thing. Leverage to finance an already-leveraged derivatives position on illiquid stock. From the issuer of said stock. Who is also the borrower's employee. That's both risky and dodgy! Bolt positions the "below $200,000" sum as a win. I don't see it that way. That's below the lower bound of the accredited investor income test. The people taking out these loans by legal definition couldn't afford the risk. Yet Bolt doubled down and gave them leverage?
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#8So the firm borrowed money to employees?
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#9> A Bolt spokesperson says that only a "single digit" number of laid-off employees took out the loans, despite more than 200 people losing their jobs, and that the aggregate amount was below $200,000. Moreover, she says the company plans to "work with" those individuals. If the amount was less than $200k, which is about the salary for a single employee these days, Bolt should just have annulled them entirely. The PR…
I am not sure that is fair -- what if someone decided to buy out their vested shares with their own money? They would be screwed while those who borrowed from Bolt wouldn't be. It is just generally problematic.
I am willing to bet no one did this.
Re: Bolt Financial's loans come due
#10I don't get the value of this company. How can fellow SWEs who learnt about kernels, networks and hardware (among other incredibly complicated works) get excited about ONE CLICK CHECKOUT?
Maybe this is the JS boot camp effect.