so he's complaining about his partner being immature and the second phrase on the site gives away said partners personal contact information?
Am I the only one seeing a slight bit of irony there?
Fundable comes to an ugly end
51–60 of 86 posts
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#52I'm torn between 'sad' and 'pathetic'. The word 'immaturity' applies, without question or hesitation.
No need to be torn, it's both (and more). Obviously, it's sad when your venture fails; writing a long rambling missive (in the third person) about how you called your partner's parents and how everyone should sue your partner, though, is pathetic. Could have simply said the company is shutting down, that one of the founders is no longer able to work on it and provided a contact address for people who need to recover…
While this is a particularly nasty situation, absolutely off-the-wall meltdown behaviour like this is actually pretty common in startups when things start going bad. Anyone remember the meltdown between the partners in the documentary Startup.com (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256408/)? I think most people at least have the wherewithal not to air the dirty laundry out in public.
It's just another risk and potential downside to partnering with someone in business. Everybody's done something at least a little bit crazy and out-of-character when a romantic relationship has hit the rocks. Maybe you did something innocent but pathetic like burning compilation CDs (i.e. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist). But we've all heard of the crazy girlfriend who dumps her (now ex-) boyfriend's stuff in front of the house after catching him cheating. Business partnerships aren't all that different. Really they involve the same levels of emotional attachment and passion.
It's important to try to assess the behaviours that a potential partner reverts to when under stress. For programmers, that might be shutting the world out and ignoring calls/emails rather than facing the music when there's a disagreement over deliverables. For non-programmer business-types, that might be writing and re-writing business plans and coming up with rather dreamy fantasy plans rather than actually getting deals done. These particular cases I think are the more common revertive behaviours (for lack of a known proper term) for programmers and business types. They're also behaviours that tend to drive the other party in such a partnership absolutely bonkers.
You definitely don't want someone who reverts to a temper tantrum like this guy from fundable. To be fair to him, this is most likely a sad case of both partners having individual meltdowns simultaneously.
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#53Louis Helm programmed the the payment system. if this is an indication of their attention to detail, it's probably a good thing they had to close before they lost their user data to some hackers. Based on what was written, I'd be surprised if both "founders" aren't 18. edit: googled, and found some photos(Pratt looks to be ~26, while the coder guy does indeed appear to be ~16: http://emilychang.com/e/go/ehub/intervie…
The first two times I read this comment I didn't notice the the extra "the".
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#54Pretty one-sided, but I suppose a domain name can only belong to one side of any argument. For the uninitiated, Fundable was a site where you could input a dollar amount and accept donations towards that 'goal'. If the goal wasn't reached within a certain time period, the money was returned to the individual donors. If the goal was reached, the money was released to whoever initiated the campaign, minus a hefty 7% co…
Do I understand correctly that https://tipit.to/ might be a (cheaper) alternative?
(Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated to this site, apart from liking a Java project the owner works on)
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_clause
A shotgun clause is probably the best method out of a bad lot, but it still has the potential for abuse. If a partner is going through financial difficulty (outside of the company), then the partner with a better financial position can force a sale at a depressed valuation. Say my mother has a massive stroke and requires expensive ongoing medical care. After a while, I'm financially drained. At that point, my partner…
I agree with your premise, reasoning, and conclusion. However, I'd disagree about what your biggest fear should be.
A horrible, Fundable.com meltdown should be, by far, a bigger fear than getting abused by a shotgun clause.
Even in the land of the do-over, I can't see how this won't destroy the confidence that investors would have in either party going forward. Your future is so very much more important than your ownership in a startup with a co-founder who has no qualms about ripping you off.
As you say, there is no legal solution to the problem of bad humans. But there's no legal solution to death or car accidents, either; what we have are legal measures to manage those risks, in the form of contracts of some kind.
A shotgun clause is a last-resort clause, and from its very nature, it appears to me that it would only be invoked when you would most want it to be invoked.
( disclaimer: mr_luc has no personal experience with shotgun clauses and may very well be talking out of a suboptimal orifice. )
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
> After John Pratt contacted Louis Helm's father, Louis Helm called John Pratt and agreed that his actions were immature. 16 sounds more likely.
Did either of you read the interview? They both graduated from the University of Michigan...
And it's this Buckeye's opinion that THAT explains a lot :D
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#57When two immature people get together to form a business.
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#58It does not matter how fucked up things became, you don't go broadcasting it, if for no other reason because its a taint by association.
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#59Could not resist a laugh really, this is so childish. That's why I would not put any trust in an online business without knowing it's background - can as well be two boys in a basement.
Absolutely...I mean, look how Sergei and Brin's and Steve and Steve's ventures turned out... sheesh.
Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_clause
A shotgun clause is probably the best method out of a bad lot, but it still has the potential for abuse. If a partner is going through financial difficulty (outside of the company), then the partner with a better financial position can force a sale at a depressed valuation. Say my mother has a massive stroke and requires expensive ongoing medical care. After a while, I'm financially drained. At that point, my partner…
See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_clause#Economics for a potential solution. (Though they do not tell how it would solve the problem. You'd have to think of it on your own.)