4 ms·

Nobody here is betting all their worldly possessions. In my case, I run a profitable enterprise SaaS business with enough cash balance (from retained earnings)

by e1g 4y ago

Nobody here is betting all their worldly possessions. In my case, I run a profitable enterprise SaaS business with enough cash balance (from retained earnings) to pay the entire lease term upfront without a significant impact. I demonstrated this to every landlord, and none changed their requirements. The market norms are what they are. In the case of the article, the founder raised $100M, was on the cover of the Inc magazine, lives in a $3-4m house, and her husband sold another startup for $80M, etc. They hardly lose sleep over a $1.7M lawsuit in real estate. In NYC, that's just another minor claims dispute.

bruce511 4y ago
Fair enough, when I say "all your worldly possessions" I'm assuming you have less than the outstanding value of the lease (or loan, or whatever you are signing surety for.) I was speaking from the perspective of someone who considers $1.7m to be more than just pocket-change. >> In my case, I run a profitable enterprise SaaS business with enough cash balance (from retained earnings) to pay the entire lease term upfront without a significant impact. I demonstrated this to every landlord, and none changed their requirements. Then clearly one option you have is to pay the lease upfront, and presumably if you did that you don't need to sign a personal surety since then there's nothing to sign for. Of course the landlord doesn't really care what your cash status is _now_ - they care what your business cash status may be 4 years from now. The risk to them is not at the moment they take on the lease, it's in all the moments from now to the end of the lease. And risk can change dramatically over that period. If I was a landlord, and you came to me showing that you had the entire lease in cash lying around, and you didn't want to sign surety, then I'm sure we could do a deal for a single up-front payment - probably with very generous terms to you to allow for the future value of money.

by e1g 4y ago

bruce511 4y ago

Fair enough, when I say "all your worldly possessions" I'm assuming you have less than the outstanding value of the lease (or loan, or whatever you are signing surety for.) I was speaking from the perspective of someone who considers $1.7m to be more than just pocket-change. >> In my case, I run a profitable enterprise SaaS business with enough cash balance (from retained earnings) to pay the entire lease term upfront without a significant impact. I demonstrated this to every landlord, and none changed their requirements. Then clearly one option you have is to pay the lease upfront, and presumably if you did that you don't need to sign a personal surety since then there's nothing to sign for. Of course the landlord doesn't really care what your cash status is _now_ - they care what your business cash status may be 4 years from now. The risk to them is not at the moment they take on the lease, it's in all the moments from now to the end of the lease. And risk can change dramatically over that period. If I was a landlord, and you came to me showing that you had the entire lease in cash lying around, and you didn't want to sign surety, then I'm sure we could do a deal for a single up-front payment - probably with very generous terms to you to allow for the future value of money.