They (Benchmark, a top-tier VC) broke a term sheet? That is...not awesome.
Protect Kids, Get F*cked
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Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#12It looks like failure to get D&O insurance prevented them from suing a top-tier VC for breaking a term sheet, but it's unclear how wise it is to sue a VC over something like that, anyway.
BTW, if anyone needs commercial insurance for their (California based) business, I've had pretty good experience with http://www.alliedbrokers.com/ Allied Brokers in Palo Alto, so far. Prof liability, D&O, etc. are all things which are probably worthwhile after a >$1mm seed, depending on how litigious your sector is (b2b, particularly).
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#13I suspect people who really want to "protect kids" find a way to do it that doesn't involve greed, lawyers, stupidity, and liberally cursing. Maybe there wouldn't be as much need to protect kids were there fewer people who talked about "getting f*cked" or screwed when talking about kids. Jerk.
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#14The title is misleading, immature and in poor taste. If HN moderators had a clue, they would edit it.
You mean the moderators who routinely revert titles to the target page's title when the submitted title is better?
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#15I suspect people who really want to "protect kids" find a way to do it that doesn't involve greed, lawyers, stupidity, and liberally cursing. Maybe there wouldn't be as much need to protect kids were there fewer people who talked about "getting f*cked" or screwed when talking about kids. Jerk.
As a parent of two middle schoolers, I am a lot less worried about adults using adult language to talk about business than I am about the people who can't tell the difference between that and actual threats to my children.
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#16Let me just quote one bit of that: Our service was free as we were working out the business model. We actually had a genius business model but hadn’t implemented it yet. We wanted more users so we spent money on marketing. Maybe the real problem wasn't the insurance?
The money was in the bank, man.
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#17The title is misleading, immature and in poor taste. If HN moderators had a clue, they would edit it.
I too am outraged. I nearly lost my monocle.
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#18What a shitty situation. But why, oh why, would you sell your house and move from Houston to California before the check cleared? We started Matasano when my kids were pre-K and a a full-day every-day handful, and I had to spend a couple months away from my family while we worked out the move (mine from Ann Arbor to Chicago). I know I'm not the only founder to deal with that situation. Was there some additional circumstance involved here, some other pitfall people should be on the lookout for?
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#19Let me just quote one bit of that: Our service was free as we were working out the business model. We actually had a genius business model but hadn’t implemented it yet. We wanted more users so we spent money on marketing. Maybe the real problem wasn't the insurance?
No, the real problem wasn't insurance; it was that a firm-seeming commitment to fund the company fell through at the worst possible moment.
A lawsuit wouldn't have fixed anything for them; it'd have taken years to resolve.
Re: Protect Kids, Get F*cked
#20Let me just quote one bit of that: Our service was free as we were working out the business model. We actually had a genius business model but hadn’t implemented it yet. We wanted more users so we spent money on marketing. Maybe the real problem wasn't the insurance?
I think it's not uncommon for companies get volume this way. I even saw on the recent PBS special "Silicon Valley" that Fairchild Semiconductor (then it was FCI) sold actual real-life transistors below cost, wagering that it would allow them to scale up their manufacturing. Ingenious, risky move. But, it worked.