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Comment by mring33621 | Hacker News Reader

Thank you for the pragmatic writeup rather than the usual "fantastic journey" blather. Also, returning investor money, rather than wasting it, demonstrates leadership.

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Is there any feedback if investors would prefer to get some of their money back or see you roll the dice on another pivot?

Had this discussion with the investors. I plan on exploring a different idea in a different space with a new founding team. The investors suggested restarting the corporate structure, and some have committed to reinvesting the money into the new company.

That..that sounds a bit like "me and the investors decided to kick out the other founders with zero compensation".

This /might/ be a nasty setting for lawsuits later, if newco turns into a unicorn.

This isn't the case, and there is no newco at this time. Unfortunately, I had to lay off all of employees today. In addition, we are liquidating any IP, closing customer accounts, paying out our cash, and dissolving the corporation.

HR is a hard space. Sorry you had to go through all of the downside of a business not working out. It probably means next to nothing today but this experience will make you more successful in you future endeavors.

Good luck on your next chapter!

> That..that sounds a bit like "me and the investors decided to kick out the other founders with zero compensation".

It would be wildly unethical and probably also illegal to use investor money to 'compensate' the founders when shutting down the business.

This is how your side would frame the issue. The opposing side would do their best to portray events as if you and the investor had identified a billion-dollar idea, and done shady manouvering to clean the cap table.

Arguably, if they'd like you to roll the dice on another project, they can always just... invest in your next project.

...with a clean cap table.

isn't that what they are doing? They are dissolving the old project, and returning investments.

Some of the investors have pledged to reinvest in this new project, that is completely new and separate from the old project.

Thats how it sounds to me, at least. Doesn't sound shady.

Agreed. I don't know all the details, but it sounds like you're really doing right by your people. I don't hear about this enough.

Agree with this. Question, it looks like this company just raised a seed round in January 2017 according to crunchbase. How can you raise a seed round in one month and then completely shut down the next?

We closed the round in July of last year, prior to starting the V2. We sat on the announcement until we needed a press boost on a product announcement.

Gotcha, thanks for the clarification! As an entrepreneur myself, greatly respect the decision to shut down and return money to investors instead of just spending until theres nothing. Good luck in your future endeavors!

A graceful shutdown of a funded startup w/ money still in the bank is a classy move. +1 gold star for you. Sorry it didn't work out the you hoped.

I'm moving onto a new idea in a different space. With our lawyers and investors, we decided that a restart was a better idea than a pivot for a variety of reasons.

What percentage was given back to the VCs? (just curious)

I, too, found the post easy to read and straight-forward. If there was ever a great way to answer the hiring question of "Tell me about a time where you failed and what you did about it?" it would be this. Good luck in your next gig!

Will be about 60% back to VCs

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