Fundable comes to an ugly end • Hacker News Board

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#71

Post by fnid » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 8:00 PM UTC

fhars wrote: post #39

falsestprophet wrote: post #35

This is what happens when you give someone 50% of a company for simply having an idea .

From the perspective of the writer it reads more like "this is what happens when you give someone 50% of a company for simply writing the code." At least one side seems to have gotten something wrong...

I have found that people who think the idea is worth half the company are usually so irrational that they make really bad decisions about their contributions to the firm later on.

Companies like this can't thrive if the scales are not balanced in terms of ownership, labor, and results. Animosity and resentment brew and people get selfish and defensive and it all breaks down.

It appears that is what has happened in the fundable case. Perhaps the programmer did not feel like the business guy was pulling his weight. Maybe for him, the upside of working all the time and fixing all the bugs in the code and making the site reliable weren't worth whatever he was getting from the deal. Maybe he wanted the business guy to spend some money on more programmers or maybe the solution was more reliable infrastructure and it wasn't something the programmer could fix with more code.

Who knows. I just know that from the tone, it isn't good and lots of users of fundable are left in the dark now. Sad.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#72

Post by elblanco » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 8:23 PM UTC

elblanco wrote: post #29

Nice ending.

sarcasm woosh

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#73

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 8:40 PM UTC

9oliYQjP wrote: post #52

pvg wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> 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.

Why does that make her crazy ?

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#74

Post by jacquesm » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 8:43 PM UTC

olefoo wrote: post #46

drusenko wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

unless, of course, they didn't do everything by the book, in which case the corporation could be found null and void and both could be personally liable.

If one of the officers of the corporation told paypal to lock the account that could be enough to pierce the veil of corporate liability if any of the parties owed money cannot retrieve their funds because of that. This just sounds like a bad deal all the way around. If the two partners are as erratic as they now appear to be. I can't imagine that they were particularly fastidious when money was flowing in.

Makes you wonder how much they took in and how much of it is still left.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#75

Post by chrismetcalf » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 9:04 PM UTC

For those who are late to the party like me, here's a screenshot I found of the original farewell message: http://img18.yfrog.com/img18/2396/s8u.png

John was actually one of my college roommates, it's sad to see this come to an end like this.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#76

Post by kburn » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 9:12 PM UTC

wmf wrote: post #26

megaduck wrote: post #9

As my cofounder and I are currently finalizing our own incorporation, I look at Fundable's sad situation and think, "Wow. What if that were us? Is there any way we can avoid ever having that kind of situation with a clever bit of legalese?" Unfortunately, I suspect the answer is "no". As soon as you give one partner the ability to eject the other (for whatever reason), you open the door for all sorts of abuse. Beside…

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shotgun_clause

Brilliant, but looks open to potential abuse, particularly when cash reserves are low.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#77

Post by idm » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 9:21 PM UTC

chrismetcalf wrote: post #75

For those who are late to the party like me, here's a screenshot I found of the original farewell message: http://img18.yfrog.com/img18/2396/s8u.png John was actually one of my college roommates, it's sad to see this come to an end like this.

I visited fundable.com right now, and it looks like the site is functioning again. What gives?

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#78

Post by chrismetcalf » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 10:20 PM UTC

idm wrote: post #77

chrismetcalf wrote: post #75

For those who are late to the party like me, here's a screenshot I found of the original farewell message: http://img18.yfrog.com/img18/2396/s8u.png John was actually one of my college roommates, it's sad to see this come to an end like this.

I visited fundable.com right now, and it looks like the site is functioning again. What gives?

I bet John's lawyer suggested he pull down the message. Either that or the other guy wrestled control of the site back.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#79

Post by maukdaddy » Fri, Oct 02, 2009, 11:41 PM UTC

jrockway wrote: post #70

This is exactly why I will never go into business with a non-technical person. This site is exactly what I think of when I think "business person".

That's a piss-poor attitude.

Re: Fundable comes to an ugly end

#80

Post by astrodust » Sat, Oct 03, 2009, 1:30 AM UTC

maukdaddy wrote: post #79

jrockway wrote: post #70

This is exactly why I will never go into business with a non-technical person. This site is exactly what I think of when I think "business person".

That's a piss-poor attitude.

I think it's a responsible attitude, but perhaps for reasons you're overlooking.

Communication is important in general, but vital in a start-up situation. If you're of a technical mindset and have a partner who is business minded, you two may have a significant communication barrier.

Any healthy partnership has enough overlap in terms of expertise that the ability of one partner to communicate to another using a language they understand.

Sometimes this takes a third partner who's somewhere in the middle and can intermediate and provide a more objective opinion when the other parties take opposing sides.

That being said, I'm sure there are start-ups where the founders do not have a lot of overlap, but I doubt they will succeed if they do not make the effort to find or create some common ground to have informed discussions on.

If you don't understand "business types", then perhaps it is responsible to not go into business with them. The "poor attitude part" may mean that you're not willing to make an effort to learn more about business, though.