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My brother died almost 10 years ago and he ran his own software company. He had no plan, because he thought he could beat cancer. His wife had to get his pass

My brother died almost 10 years ago and he ran his own software company. He had no plan, because he thought he could beat cancer. His wife had to get his passwords while he was on his deathbed. The day of his funeral, his wife begged me to look at his work laptop and help her out. She even mentioned us being partners in the company. I was already running my own successful company at the time and had almost no time do this. I found the time and saved her probably close to $150,000 in customers pissed off because my brother stopped handling support due to his illness, forgotten about purchase orders, and a website that he pre-paid for $20,000 and was never delivered because he died and never told them he was sick. They sent over the entire amount within a few days of me explaining the situation. I never expected any money for this work, I was just trying to clean up the business and get it back to a functional level. A few months later, when she had time to grieve and think about things, she wanted to talk partnership. Her first offer was to pay me $15/hour, which I rejected (and laughed about later with my wife). Her second offer was to give me 10% of the company and when her kids turned 18 in 8 years, they would get full control over the company (including my 10%). I was personally offended because she essentially wanted me to maintain and build up the entire company, take a very low percentage along the way, only to hand over the entire company to her kids (my nephews). When I explained this to her and rejected the offer, she told me that I had no skills beyond 'answering emails' and that I didn't 'understand how business worked'. Shortly after this, she found an email from my brother's old friend who was very religious. She had also recently found god and as a result, convinced this person that he needed to help her for free. For the last 6 or 7 years, the business has been in maintenance mode with this person answering emails, for free. I know the technical capabilities of this person and most responses are basically re-installing the software or rebooting the computer. I am also in the tech industry and the job this person has is about the level I was at when I was 15 (I'm 45 now). The result was as I expected: Most of his clients stopped re-purchasing licenses because there is no more support or bug fixes and you also just can't trust the security of software after it hasn't been updated in 10 years. She now has to work a minimum wage job making meals for the elderly (which isn't a bad thing) and the company is close to bankruptcy. It was good we were never partners, because I probably would not have been able to start my next business. It took my brother over a decade to build his successful company, and a few years for his wife to destroy it.

Rastonbury 2y ago
She doesn't seem to have the experience to make it successful (either the ability to run it or hire) and you didn't have the time to run it either, given that, the company halting is almost a given as with any sole proprietorship when the founder suddenly dies
- billy99k 2y ago
  These are both good points. I sold my company a year or two after this and got into a new venture shortly after. I was looking for something different and could have made time to maintain the current company and even get new clients.
x-complexity 2y ago
> A few months later, when she had time to grieve and think about things, she wanted to talk partnership. Her first offer was to pay me $15/hour, which I rejected (and laughed about later with my wife). That's an immediate red flag that tells me: 1) She doesn't value other people's time, but thinks that her's is invaluable. 2) She thinks this is a "simple job" (It never is, regardless of the business in question).
- billy99k 2y ago
  This is exactly right. After that first offer, I was just going to walk away. The sad part is that the business would have done very will during covid. It could have reached a new level of profitability. She was able to take all of the money out of the company for a couple of years before the software contracts expired. After all the value was gone, she tried to sell the company for $1,000,000. The potential buyer almost laughed in her face.

Rastonbury 2y ago

She doesn't seem to have the experience to make it successful (either the ability to run it or hire) and you didn't have the time to run it either, given that, the company halting is almost a given as with any sole proprietorship when the founder suddenly dies

billy99k 2y ago
These are both good points. I sold my company a year or two after this and got into a new venture shortly after. I was looking for something different and could have made time to maintain the current company and even get new clients.

x-complexity 2y ago

> A few months later, when she had time to grieve and think about things, she wanted to talk partnership. Her first offer was to pay me $15/hour, which I rejected (and laughed about later with my wife). That's an immediate red flag that tells me: 1) She doesn't value other people's time, but thinks that her's is invaluable. 2) She thinks this is a "simple job" (It never is, regardless of the business in question).

billy99k 2y ago
This is exactly right. After that first offer, I was just going to walk away. The sad part is that the business would have done very will during covid. It could have reached a new level of profitability. She was able to take all of the money out of the company for a couple of years before the software contracts expired. After all the value was gone, she tried to sell the company for $1,000,000. The potential buyer almost laughed in her face.