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Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

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Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#11

Post by x0x0 »

nacs wrote: post #4
faramarz wrote: post #3

"Quick clarification: Many, many of the investors & employees didn't see any money, not just the founders. That's what I meant by fire sale." https://twitter.com/monstro/status/585808886508040192

And the firesale tweet: To be fair, it was a total firesale. In the years since we all got politely pushed out, the business had completely tanked. https://twitter.com/monstro/status/585797874300035072 Also: Usually they at least throw the founders some hush money, but we didn't even get that! So I promise you'll hear more about it soon. https://twitter.com/monstro/status/585798828822892545

Maybe my memory is incorrect, but they were kind of sketchy; their page implied companies not paying them weren't interested in customer interaction and they wanted $1200/year to get rid of competitors' ads before 37 signals called them out: https://signalvnoise.com/posts/1650-get-satisfaction-or-else

Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#12

Post by StavrosK »

socceroos wrote: post #9

Judging by the tweets mentioned and linked in this thread, there are going to be some interesting articles come out of this. I for one would love to see the intricacies of investor influence. This sounds like it was a total fluster cluck.

> fluster cluck

Does the extra "l" bother anyone else?

Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#15

Post by prostoalex »

tomglindmeier wrote: post #13

Sounds like they signed a relay bad contract. I'm sorry for them.

Almost any significant round outside of seed would come with liquidation preference. CrunchBase says a total of $20.9 was raised, so if the final sale price was less then $20,900,001.00, there's likely no money left for common stock.

Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#16

Post by socceroos »

StavrosK wrote: post #12
socceroos wrote: post #9

Judging by the tweets mentioned and linked in this thread, there are going to be some interesting articles come out of this. I for one would love to see the intricacies of investor influence. This sounds like it was a total fluster cluck.

> fluster cluck Does the extra "l" bother anyone else?

Heh....I knew it didn't sound quite right.

Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#17

Post by ChuckMcM »

r0naa wrote: post #2

How is that even possible?

Every time you raise money you negotiate the terms for that private placement. Lets say your start up has 3 rounds, A, B, and C, and raises $1M, $2M, and $10M with a 1x liquidation preference. Now you're business is sagging and you're about to close up shop, but an investor comes in and says "We'll provide the money but we want 3x senior liquidation" which is to say they get paid back 3X their money before anyone else. Lets say they put in $1M, and the company sells for $3M. It all goes to the last investor because they were senior in liquidation rights. Nobody else gets any money.

In terms of that last raise it is sometimes "nothing" (ie close the doors) or one more shot at making it. So from the founder's perspective the 'close the doors' option has them getting nothing, and keeping it alive long enough to sell it may or may not give them a return.

Re: Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

#20

Post by wpietri »

Here's their funding history:

https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/satisfaction/funding...

And here's a handy explanation of "participating preferred" which is one way early sharholders can end up with nothing:

http://www.feld.com/archives/2004/08/to-participate-or-not-p...

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