7 ms·

I believe this was meant as a sarcasm, but in a chance that it wasn't here are some extreme cases (these are all different investors): - they asked me to pay f

by doh 6y ago

I believe this was meant as a sarcasm, but in a chance that it wasn't here are some extreme cases (these are all different investors): - they asked me to pay for attendance in their seminar that will teach me how to raise money before they consider investing - I got stood up for a meeting with no word from the person. He followed up two weeks later that they are not interested. 3 years later we met at an event thrown by one of our investors and this person, after listening to me talking about the company, approached me for an investment opportunity - I got introduced to a guy that never responded. I got reintroduced to him 4 times! on his own request, but he never replied. When we finally closed our first round he sent a note to our lead investor that he is very interested to be introduced to the company. Guess what. We never heard from him - I was "forced" to explain our technology in an extreme detail (we use proprietary algorithms) after which I was told that this doesn't make any sense because he knows better and I'm wrong. I wrote the code - I was asked to fly in for a meeting to NYC which should've been a final handshake after weeks of talking. They said that without meeting in person they can't close the deal. As I was sitting in their lobby, an assistant explained to me that he is busy today, lets reschedule for a date two weeks out - a fund spent 9 months on due diligence, covering every single cranny and nook of the company. Gave us a term sheet, pushed for a closing and then refused to sign their own papers. We owed hundreds of thousands in legal fees and almost closed the shop. I wrote about it a bit here [0] This is just a selection of them. There were many more. This was the time it was suggested to me to apply for YC to get better treatment. Unfortunately YC passed and I never tried again. Things changed quite significantly when we turned profit and started generating tens of millions of dollars [1]. But the path was quite painful. [0] https://turek.co/2017/12/from-near-bankruptcy-to-profitability-in-4-months/ https://turek.co/2017/12/from-near-bankruptcy-to-profitabili... [1] https://mobile.twitter.com/synopsi/status/1207722432091455488 https://mobile.twitter.com/synopsi/status/120772243209145548...

3np 6y ago
Thanks for sharing. BTW, you still have time to insert extra whitespace for those bullet points.
- doh 6y ago
  Thanks for the nudge. I keep forgetting the markdown here is different
justinclift 6y ago
Ouch. Especially with the one which led you through 9 months of due diligence, then refused to sign. I'm kind of surprised they didn't string you out for a while longer, then offer to buy the entire operation when you were forced to fold. Have seen that done before - on purpose - by a place that knew the value of the operation and figured they could get the whole thing cheaply that way. And did so successfully. :(
- doh 6y ago
  You know, I think that was the plan. We were in such a dire financial situation that I believe they were planning to come back with just that. (I say this mostly because these guys were strategics rather than a traditional VC). However my hurt ego got in place and I refused to take any calls and I blocked all their emails. Who knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t.
  - Zenbit_UX 6y ago
    Hurt ego or not, blocking them fucked up their plans and might have made them at least contemplate doing this to someone else in the future. I'm sure their costs for those 9 months weren't entirely free either.
    - doh 6y ago
      Unfortunately this is a multibillion dollar company. I'm pretty sure they didn't even flinch. The only negative thing to them I know of is that one of the top US law firms dropped them because of this. They felt that this was very disgraceful behavior and sent us both a note that they need to protect their reputation with founders and they will no more work with them.
vmception 6y ago
Yeah, sounds about right. We should have more of these stories. I've seen it all. I've worked with co-founders that couldn't tell we were getting the run around when it was plainly obvious to me. I've worked with other startups in advisory roles seeing the same things from all their leads.
- doh 6y ago
  I hear you. I seen worse unfortunately. Especially when founders are not white men (like myself). The way that some of my female founders friends were treated was orders of magnitude worse (if that's even possible). One friend wrote about her experience [0]. [0] https://medium.com/sparking-conversation/how-raising-a-2-m-seed-round-really-actually-went-b1c53ff9096a https://medium.com/sparking-conversation/how-raising-a-2-m-s...
  - langitbiru 6y ago
    Don't forget the case of black CEOs mistaken as subordinates. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540162
    - doh 6y ago
      That's very disturbing. I never thought I will consider myself lucky after what I went through.
      - vmception 6y ago
        My other response matches what the Bloomberg article in that post is saying: hire a white person for the American market. The comments are saying similar things to what I experience in America, where there is a need to prove unnecessary things, and also no acceptance of mediocrity. Every black person has to be Obama. Whereas I see others are getting the benefit of the doubt. This isn't really news in the black community, people who almost universally realize that their experience is going to be challenged and invalidated with an infinite series of excuses and sometimes plain gaslighting so they just stop talking about it as it falls on deaf ears. About the need to be better by a mythically high standard, JFK said the same thing 60 years ago, so I too am deeply skeptically about people that suddenly want to listen. For how long will they really want to have this conversation this time? For me, the primary validation about America's quirks is my experience outside of America. In other markets, primarily my experience lies in Commonwealth and European markets, I've just been accepted as a competent person taking initiative. Ironically, it is because of my metadata of being American and additionally my existence in Tech / Silicon Valley that helps. But it is a glimpse of the refreshing experience that Ivy League white males seem to describe having the rest of their lives in America. The experience that makes them have an unfaltering marriage to the US infrastructure and stability, which is completely foreign to me, while I retain access to an America that can function as a tool for me to obtain access to capital.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

by doh 6y ago

3np 6y ago

Thanks for sharing. BTW, you still have time to insert extra whitespace for those bullet points.

doh 6y ago
Thanks for the nudge. I keep forgetting the markdown here is different

justinclift 6y ago

Ouch. Especially with the one which led you through 9 months of due diligence, then refused to sign. I'm kind of surprised they didn't string you out for a while longer, then offer to buy the entire operation when you were forced to fold. Have seen that done before - on purpose - by a place that knew the value of the operation and figured they could get the whole thing cheaply that way. And did so successfully. :(

doh 6y ago
You know, I think that was the plan. We were in such a dire financial situation that I believe they were planning to come back with just that. (I say this mostly because these guys were strategics rather than a traditional VC). However my hurt ego got in place and I refused to take any calls and I blocked all their emails. Who knows what would’ve happened if I didn’t.
- Zenbit_UX 6y ago
  Hurt ego or not, blocking them fucked up their plans and might have made them at least contemplate doing this to someone else in the future. I'm sure their costs for those 9 months weren't entirely free either.
  - doh 6y ago
    Unfortunately this is a multibillion dollar company. I'm pretty sure they didn't even flinch. The only negative thing to them I know of is that one of the top US law firms dropped them because of this. They felt that this was very disgraceful behavior and sent us both a note that they need to protect their reputation with founders and they will no more work with them.

vmception 6y ago

Yeah, sounds about right. We should have more of these stories. I've seen it all. I've worked with co-founders that couldn't tell we were getting the run around when it was plainly obvious to me. I've worked with other startups in advisory roles seeing the same things from all their leads.

doh 6y ago
I hear you. I seen worse unfortunately. Especially when founders are not white men (like myself). The way that some of my female founders friends were treated was orders of magnitude worse (if that's even possible). One friend wrote about her experience [0]. [0] https://medium.com/sparking-conversation/how-raising-a-2-m-seed-round-really-actually-went-b1c53ff9096a https://medium.com/sparking-conversation/how-raising-a-2-m-s...
- langitbiru 6y ago
  Don't forget the case of black CEOs mistaken as subordinates. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23540162
  - doh 6y ago
    That's very disturbing. I never thought I will consider myself lucky after what I went through.
    - vmception 6y ago
      My other response matches what the Bloomberg article in that post is saying: hire a white person for the American market. The comments are saying similar things to what I experience in America, where there is a need to prove unnecessary things, and also no acceptance of mediocrity. Every black person has to be Obama. Whereas I see others are getting the benefit of the doubt. This isn't really news in the black community, people who almost universally realize that their experience is going to be challenged and invalidated with an infinite series of excuses and sometimes plain gaslighting so they just stop talking about it as it falls on deaf ears. About the need to be better by a mythically high standard, JFK said the same thing 60 years ago, so I too am deeply skeptically about people that suddenly want to listen. For how long will they really want to have this conversation this time? For me, the primary validation about America's quirks is my experience outside of America. In other markets, primarily my experience lies in Commonwealth and European markets, I've just been accepted as a competent person taking initiative. Ironically, it is because of my metadata of being American and additionally my existence in Tech / Silicon Valley that helps. But it is a glimpse of the refreshing experience that Ivy League white males seem to describe having the rest of their lives in America. The experience that makes them have an unfaltering marriage to the US infrastructure and stability, which is completely foreign to me, while I retain access to an America that can function as a tool for me to obtain access to capital.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]