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They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

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Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#121

Post by bawolff »

datascienced wrote: post #80
bawolff wrote: post #78

I mean, maybe you shouldn't sell of the right to buy your company. The accelerator sounds scummy, but at the same time i can't help but wonder wtf the owners of these companies were doing. Did they just not read the contract? If you own a company i think you have a lot of responsibility for the shitty business deals you make. Its not like we are talking about some senior citizen hoodwinked into signing their home awa…

Every contract has some crap in for what seems like unlikely scenarios. If you can’t negotiate it out it is either that or the highway. If these startups could get YC funding they probably would have. So for some it is accept a possible imperfect contract or back to employment. Employment itself being full of contracts with crap clauses as well as common law itself having crap. Show me the perfect contract!

> If you can’t negotiate it out it is either that or the highway

That is generally how contracts work. You get something and you give something in return. Nothing comes free. If the deal was better then "the highway", you have no cause to complain when the other side comes to collect their part.

Especially for a sophisticated party like a company. Things are a little different for individuals like employees where the power imbalance is coercive. However when it comes to a company, as long as it wasn't outright fraud, i have very little sympathy that they are having buyers remorse over a bad deal.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#122

Post by bratwurst3000 »

withinboredom wrote: post #119
IncreasePosts wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse - loans can't usually be clawed back at any time

Nearly all loans I have seen have a provision in the contract that the entire loan can be called at any time.

Is this a American thing?

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#123

Post by pedalpete »

So is the technicality of a warrant vs a SAFE that lands these founders in this position? As a SAFE is an agreement for future equity, would it also be treated as a warrant in a bankruptcy?

Why would NewChip decide on this structure vs the more common?

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#124

Post by Lewton »

dtnewman wrote: post #36
moralestapia wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most VCs add zero value aside from the money. Bootstrapping is always better, if you can do it, of course. Exhibit A: Naval Ravikant, the flagship SV investor, widely regarded to as "a wise man", just released a kind of crappy messaging app that flopped. Imagine having unlimited leverage, unlimited money, unlimited reputation, a huge audience already in place and still that not being enough to put out a competent pro…

No one gives away 20% of a company for advice. He gives them capital. Hopefully connections. And founders can take or leave the advice. Anyway, he is a successful entrepreneur having built AngelList. Sure, maybe he isn’t Midas, but a single failure in a startup doesn’t make someone an idiot. But assuming you are referring to AirChat, it seems too early to call it a failure anyway.

> a single failure in a startup doesn’t make someone an idiot

Depends on the failure

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#125

Post by dryanau »

withinboredom wrote: post #119
IncreasePosts wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even worse - loans can't usually be clawed back at any time

Nearly all loans I have seen have a provision in the contract that the entire loan can be called at any time.

What? No they don't!

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#126

Post by justinclift »

bratwurst3000 wrote: post #122
withinboredom wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nearly all loans I have seen have a provision in the contract that the entire loan can be called at any time.

Is this a American thing?

Seems to be common in at least western countries.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#127

Post by CPLX »

rdlecler1 wrote: post #110
moralestapia wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>No one gives away 20% of a company for advice. You'd be surprised at how common that is. Wouldn't you be inclined to believe that @naval wouldn't want to use that capital, connections and whatnot to support the single project of its own authorship in its lifetime? The results speak for themselves. I have another theory, VCs freeride on the success and luck of other people's projects, which (sometimes) are so good an…

You don’t seem to understand basic economics. When you get on a bus and pay for your ticket, is the rest of the ride a free ride? VCs are running a business too. Most VCs fail to return the capital to their LPs. That’s right, then spend 10 years of their life working with startups and have nothing at the end. They take RISK and they try to DERISK their investment by helping the portfolio company. There’s also a LOT o…

> then spend 10 years of their life working with startups and have nothing at the end

How do they avoid starving to death after the first few days?

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#128

Post by brianoconnor »

justinclift wrote: post #126
bratwurst3000 wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a American thing?

Seems to be common in at least western countries.

Defo not the case here for consumer loans. A German bank cannot tell you to pay back a loan earlier than agreed on in the contract.

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#129

Post by loa_in_ »

dylan604 wrote: post #95
slyall wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had somebody sit near to me who wanted to leave at lunchtime but was convinced to stay on and left after the second day. This was on the ads team. The job involved managing ads on our site (via google ads and some other providers). They had never done this sort of thing before[1] and were not up to being thrown in the deep end. [1] I think they had done other sorts of advertising, just not for websites

You say deep end, but any chance somebody had a crisis of consciousness with working with ad tech. Oh who am I kidding?

Crisis of conscience, I imagine

Re: They thought they were joining an accelerator – instead they lost their startups

#130

Post by johnhaltonx21 »

brianoconnor wrote: post #128
justinclift wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems to be common in at least western countries.

Defo not the case here for consumer loans. A German bank cannot tell you to pay back a loan earlier than agreed on in the contract.

they can. if some of the circumstances that allowed you to get the loan changes. They can terminate the loan agreement and demand repayment in full immediately.

https://www.finanzcheck.de/kredit/kredit-kuendigung/

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