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Wanelo: The First Million Users

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Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#81

Post by UweSchmidt »

chasing wrote: post #76
downandout wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that she - the founder - is lying in this presentation (though she fails to mention her technical cofounder). I think it's more that the title of this submission, which was presumably not made by her, was inaccurate (and has since been changed to its current title which is more accurate). Lots of companies screw their technical cofounders. I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquire…

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

My bet is that he's already explored that avenue, and that the business relationship was not properly specified in writing and that it's the unsolvable "my word against your word" problem now.

Hoping that everyone get's that right the first time is of course illusional; may you all learn that lesson by being screwed out of a moderate 4 digit amount early in your careers!

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#82

Post by downandout »

chasing wrote: post #76
downandout wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure that she - the founder - is lying in this presentation (though she fails to mention her technical cofounder). I think it's more that the title of this submission, which was presumably not made by her, was inaccurate (and has since been changed to its current title which is more accurate). Lots of companies screw their technical cofounders. I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquire…

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civil federal extortion case against both the acquirer and my cofounder.

But, as of this moment, despite my name being on the company's first and primary patent, having written all of its initial code, having envisioned the entire concept of the company myself, and even having named the company, I have seen exactly $0 from an acquisition I was supposed to receive 20% of. Even better, with $60 million in his pocket, my womanizing, alcoholic, conniving cofounder suddenly found Jesus and now fancies himself a televangelist of sorts. At last contact with him, he was "praying for me". Go figure.

So yeah, be careful when working with others. My cofounder would have been considered by anyone that looked at him to be beyond reproach. He was not.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#84

Post by ctide »

mtrimpe wrote: post #40
dogfood123 wrote: post #27

This is an entirely bogus history. She had a tech co-founder and cut him out. I met him back in 2009. https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8860093 Why lie about it?

Thank you HN for instantly voting this up to the top. A woman builds a big business from scratch and rather than wondering why it took so long for her to get funding we instantly latch on to a second-hand report that she might've had a falling out with someone before her site even started taking off. Ignoring the fact that this isn't incompatible with the presentation at all or that there's plenty of male founders wh…

Because the title was: 'Single, female, non-tech founder with no team...and her first 1 million users' and HN thrives on drama and pointing out things that are inaccurate.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#85

Post by imdsm »

downandout wrote: post #82
chasing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

Any name?

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#86

Post by skizm »

arbuge wrote: post #57
skizm wrote: post #34

Slide 8: no one cares. Slide 9: not interesting. Slide 10: 30k monthly uniques. What happened there? That is all I really care about.

I asked her this question directly. She claims she did it via $20 a day on FB ads for a few months: https://twitter.com/siberianfruit/status/447961840090218496

Awesome. Thanks! I don't know if I believe it but that's another story.

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#87

Post by atomical »

downandout wrote: post #70
dogfood123 wrote: post #27

This is an entirely bogus history. She had a tech co-founder and cut him out. I met him back in 2009. https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=8860093 Why lie about it?

I'm not sure that she - the founder - is lying in this presentation (though she fails to mention her technical cofounder). I think it's more that the title of this submission, which was presumably not made by her, was inaccurate (and has since been changed to its current title which is more accurate). Lots of companies screw their technical cofounders. I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquire…

Have you thought about hiring a lawyer on contingency?

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#88

Post by downandout »

imdsm wrote: post #85
downandout wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

Any name?

I probably shouldn't say here, but since I've posted the info before here years ago, I guess it doesn't really matter.

http://anakam.com (redirects to Equifax, who bought the company and tried to extort me, original company was Anakam LLC).

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#89

Post by [deleted] »

downandout wrote: post #82
chasing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

[deleted]

Re: Wanelo: The First Million Users

#90

Post by beachstartup »

downandout wrote: post #82
chasing wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I was the technical cofounder of a company that was later acquired, but never received the $12.8 million check I was supposed to and didn't have the resources to fight back against a maniacal cofounder flush with $60+ million in new cash from the acquisition. Not to derail, but let's hear that story. Seems like hiring a lawyer would be a no-brainer if you were due $12.8m.

It's a long story, but I am still in the process of pursuing it legally. When I first learned of the acquisition, I didn't have the resources to pursue it, and even today don't have millions sitting around to pay attorneys. I sent a letter to the acquiring company explaining the situation and demanding that I receive my cut, and they actually responded with an extortionate threat in writing. We are now pursuing a civ…

you should probably have made sure your name is on all the dozens of 20-page security contracts you signed when creating, incorporating, running, and selling the company.
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