Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the hypothetical of terms on the table for a loan is a red herring, so is the supposition that management had months of visibility into their demise. Convoy wasn't a pure software business. It didn't operate on massive gross margins; it was operationally (and financially) levered. Decades-old trucking companies are going down unexpectedly; I'm not sure why HN 's armchair executives figure they could have called th…
At least two ex-Convoy employees have posted in this thread saying they are "extremely unsurprised" that this happened, and could see it coming. Handwaving away things like you have doesn't add value - many of us have worked at startups, and the warning signs are common and repeated. A handwaving dismissal along the lines of "plenty of companies have turned things around at the last moment, running on fumes, so it wo…
They were laying people off every few months for over a year. There is a difference, however, between a material chance of default and being completely fucked.
> it would have been irresponsible for Convoy to do anything but run it it zero!"
They should have put severance terms into their original employment contracts. Providing employees with de novo severance after you know it's going under guarantees creditor lawsuits. (Remember: Convoy was heavily indebted.) One thing worse than getting shafted like these guys would be receiving a subpoena months later clawing back severance.
If there is a non-civic action item from this, it's to put good severance terms into your employment agreements before shit hits the fan. (Counterpoint: it could accelerate your demise.)