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When a meeting with a VC goes bad (Jobloft)

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Re: When a meeting with a VC goes bad (Jobloft)

#7
post #6

Poking around, I found http://www.jobloft.com/blog/2006/11/22/jobloftcom-the-suns-s... .. It's Jobloft's side of the story. Apparently the dragons wanted to invest $200,000 for 50% of the company. I have no idea if that's a good deal or not.

You have no idea? Hmm.... you need to think it through. Just think about how much exactly $200K would last them and how much more money they'd need to raise to become profitable. Not to mention the control problems.

As funny as that whole thing was, the prof was right to break that deal. This company wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway with that kind of a structure.

Re: When a meeting with a VC goes bad (Jobloft)

#8
post #7
post #6

Poking around, I found http://www.jobloft.com/blog/2006/11/22/jobloftcom-the-suns-s... .. It's Jobloft's side of the story. Apparently the dragons wanted to invest $200,000 for 50% of the company. I have no idea if that's a good deal or not.

You have no idea? Hmm.... you need to think it through. Just think about how much exactly $200K would last them and how much more money they'd need to raise to become profitable. Not to mention the control problems. As funny as that whole thing was, the prof was right to break that deal. This company wouldn't have gone anywhere anyway with that kind of a structure.

That's right. I have no idea. You know why I have no idea? Because nobody is offering me $200k, that's why I have no idea. If they were, I'd immediately learn enough to make a relatively informed decision. But until then, I'd rather learn things that would help me build a product, not manage a company. So therefore, I have no idea. Gosh, what a horrible thing to admit.

Re: When a meeting with a VC goes bad (Jobloft)

#9
post #6

Poking around, I found http://www.jobloft.com/blog/2006/11/22/jobloftcom-the-suns-s... .. It's Jobloft's side of the story. Apparently the dragons wanted to invest $200,000 for 50% of the company. I have no idea if that's a good deal or not.

Structurally that is almost guaranteed to be a bad deal. I doubt you'd ever find a deal of this form in the history of a startup that went on to be successful. If an investor buys as much as half the company (it does happen in some series A rounds), the valuation should be higher.

Investors might pay $200k for half a restaurant or some other business like that, but not a startup.

Re: When a meeting with a VC goes bad (Jobloft)

#10
post #6

Poking around, I found http://www.jobloft.com/blog/2006/11/22/jobloftcom-the-suns-s... .. It's Jobloft's side of the story. Apparently the dragons wanted to invest $200,000 for 50% of the company. I have no idea if that's a good deal or not.

I've always felt that they behave like VCs i.e. want a lot of control (hence the 50%) but only want to invest money like an angel. The weird thing is that given the amount of money they invest and the number of deals they do, they possibly can't have the time to run any of those early stage companies.

I've never seen a startup accept funding from them, its either an inventor who gets access to a particular store or a mom & pop shop.

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