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It's curious that Toptal is structured as a single member LLC. That would make it difficult/impossible for a VC to invest. And, while they claim they raised a r

It's curious that Toptal is structured as a single member LLC. That would make it difficult/impossible for a VC to invest. And, while they claim they raised a round from a16z, it's not listed on a16z's full list of investments: https://a16z.com/investments/ https://a16z.com/investments/ That would support the notion that Du Val promised to convert and issue stock to other parties and never did.

mrnobody_67 7y ago
They've also had at least 5 general counsels... and were taken to court by another marketplace for scraping their database of programmers (ultimately settling out of court).
staticautomatic 7y ago
I don't think any of that supports the assertion that he promised to convert the note but never did. Whatever promises were made are in the note itself. What's especially interesting and radical about this is that, if it's true, the note was no-recourse for the investors. As I imagine is typical, a note I did once would convert to preferred upon raising a certain amount of money, but if we didn't, the note holder could either extend the term or elect to take common instead. The idea that you could do a note where the investor gets nothing if you don't raise more money is fucking wild. That said, I guess it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that even investors like A16Z would consider doing a no-recourse deal, provided the round was really hot and the investor was super confident that the company would raise more money. If it's true that the note is no-recourse, then I say more power to him. Ask for the terms you want! You'll never know how much leverage you really have unless you try. The worst thing that can happen is they say no.
rococode 7y ago
Strange that it's not on the website there. I don't know if the investment really happened either, but there are a couple links on a16z which seem to suggest they did invest in TopTal. Some articles reference a seed round. (these links are all empty apart from a logo and a date ranging from 2013 to 2016) https://a16z.com/toptal-2/ https://a16z.com/toptal-2/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo-3/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo-3/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo/ https://a16z.com/toptal/ https://a16z.com/toptal/
- sandmansandine 7y ago
  Looks like it shows up on their seeds page in some older snapshots: https://web.archive.org/web/20150810161359/http://a16z.com/seeds https://web.archive.org/web/20150810161359/http://a16z.com/s...

mrnobody_67 7y ago

They've also had at least 5 general counsels... and were taken to court by another marketplace for scraping their database of programmers (ultimately settling out of court).

staticautomatic 7y ago

I don't think any of that supports the assertion that he promised to convert the note but never did. Whatever promises were made are in the note itself. What's especially interesting and radical about this is that, if it's true, the note was no-recourse for the investors. As I imagine is typical, a note I did once would convert to preferred upon raising a certain amount of money, but if we didn't, the note holder could either extend the term or elect to take common instead. The idea that you could do a note where the investor gets nothing if you don't raise more money is fucking wild. That said, I guess it's not totally beyond the realm of possibility that even investors like A16Z would consider doing a no-recourse deal, provided the round was really hot and the investor was super confident that the company would raise more money. If it's true that the note is no-recourse, then I say more power to him. Ask for the terms you want! You'll never know how much leverage you really have unless you try. The worst thing that can happen is they say no.

rococode 7y ago

Strange that it's not on the website there. I don't know if the investment really happened either, but there are a couple links on a16z which seem to suggest they did invest in TopTal. Some articles reference a seed round. (these links are all empty apart from a logo and a date ranging from 2013 to 2016) https://a16z.com/toptal-2/ https://a16z.com/toptal-2/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo-3/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo-3/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo/ https://a16z.com/toptal-logo/ https://a16z.com/toptal/ https://a16z.com/toptal/

sandmansandine 7y ago
Looks like it shows up on their seeds page in some older snapshots: https://web.archive.org/web/20150810161359/http://a16z.com/seeds https://web.archive.org/web/20150810161359/http://a16z.com/s...