What if you just kept everyone, told them the truth that you can't pay them, and kept going? If you still believe in the core underlying thing that was working when you started then maybe you can turn this around.
My Startup has 30 Days to Live
21–30 of 239 posts
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#22"This week, I need to speak to the other founder and fire our first employee before he leaves on a planned vacation. He’s a good developer, but I won’t fucking make payroll next week if I don’t clear him and his severance out of the company." Is it wrong that I feel worse for this employee than for the author? He's looking forward to a (probably well-earned) vacation, and he's about to be forced into a job hunt inste…
You should. I feel fucking shitty about this.
Can't you wait till he gets back so he can have a good vacation?...Although I've seen the whole "got fired upon returning from vacation" thing happen a few times. That sucks too! Sorry for both of you.
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#23Maybe I missed it, but WHY does your startup have 30 days to live? You ran out of money and have no raise potential? How could your employee and cofounder not know this already?
Founders are all very well aware, employees still in the dark.
No raise potential as metrics are nowhere near where they should be. Solid IP and team that might make for a good acquisition, provided investors will OK it (they've rejected one some time ago)
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#24All I can do is wish you good luck and say that I admire you for having the courage to try. These seem like empty words, so read some of my other posts to see that I really say what I mean (i.e. I'm very harsh with people I don't think much of, so when I'm nice, it means something). I'm sorry to hear that this is happening and I hope things turn out for the best.
Where are you located? What's your next move?
I can't stand how these investors get so hung up on Playing God with other peoples' companies. If they want to take over the world (and endure the risk involved; since world domination has a much higher chance of failure than a sustainable, mid-growth lifestyle business) they should do it with their careers and companies, not someone else's.
Elon Musk is doing the right thing. He's chasing the vision with his own work, rather than jumping into someone else's Magitek Armor and then deciding to burn Narshe.
Also, these asshats are the reason it's so fucking hard for startups to get clients. Businesses (clients) have been burned, horribly, in the past by startups dropping them to chase dragons because their investors thought it a better idea to drop the client and roll the dice on some red-ocean product play with a 1-in-100 shot at success. This creates a world in which clients are very cautious about dealing with startups.
We'd have a better ecosystem if the VCs were just passive investors who didn't try to live out their own adolescent do-the-world fantasies. They'd certainly make more money that way.
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#25Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#26Earlier quoted context omitted.
You should. I feel fucking shitty about this.
Can't you wait till he gets back so he can have a good vacation?...Although I've seen the whole "got fired upon returning from vacation" thing happen a few times. That sucks too! Sorry for both of you.
Apparently you missed the part about not meeting payroll. There are few things worse( legally, in employment law )than missing payroll.
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#27Maybe I missed it, but WHY does your startup have 30 days to live? You ran out of money and have no raise potential? How could your employee and cofounder not know this already?
Founders are all very well aware, employees still in the dark. No raise potential as metrics are nowhere near where they should be. Solid IP and team that might make for a good acquisition, provided investors will OK it (they've rejected one some time ago)
Do investors know you have 30 days? Company is most valuable with team intact, and hopefully no negative PR. Don't let your company get publicly connected to your post, it could kill a deal. I'm referring to acqui-hire scenario
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#28Your startup is going to die, you're going to get a new job (which you'll have no trouble doing), and sometime in the future you'll start another company. Maybe you'll do the next one smarter, since you'll have more experience.
Signed,
Been there.
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#29I'm going to say this knowing that I may get down voted to heck. And I don't mean it as a "told you so" to the OP, but rather hopefully some cautionary advice for would-be founders.
I have come to the opinion that if you are bootstrapping, you have no business calling your company a startup. You are building a small business. And there is nothing shameful about this. You are among solid companions with your local plumbers, restaurants, and barbers. You make a good living building a sustainable business that is growing steadily but slowly, to serve a small group of loyal customers.
But you are not a startup.
Startups are about growth. About chasing metrics like 5% week over week. About going from 100 customers to 100,000 in a month. That is the reason you take VC money. It's not "I have this idea for a business, but I need some money to quit my job while I work on it". It's "I have an idea for a business that could be huge but I need to build it up fast".
So when I see someone bemoaning the advice they were given by their investors, telling them they should be meeting all these crazy metrics, I can't help but ask, what did you expect? The VC isn't in the business of slow, organic growth of your company. They are in the business of generating a return for their fund within a relatively short timeframe. The advice you get is their best effort to try and help you find "explosive" growth.
Before you sign your bootstrapped business on for investment money, ask yourself: is this business, and more importantly am I, really suited for massive, short term growth?
Re: My Startup has 30 Days to Live
#30I am curious, as to why you didn't listen to your gut, and how old you are?
The tempting lure of a big convertible note and a set of drooling investors saying that we were building "the next big thing".
This always confuses me: sure, you needn't have gone through VC funding, but how far could you have taken the company without it? What would have the alternative been?