Hacker News Reader

Comment by mbyrne | Hacker News Reader

The quick answer if that if you are going to sell 1/3 of your company for two months of ramen noodles then you don't really think much of it. Already I can tell this guy is not an angel, he smells blood. Plus he's running his company full-time but wants to be a one third partner? When? on weekends?

You said you would give numbers but then don't. How much money do you need to survive two months? or is it not two months? If the valuation is 750K and he is getting 1/3 the company, is he giving you 250k cash? are you burning 125k per month? what is your monthly nut personal and company?

Anyway, it is super obvious you are not comfortable with this guy and don't trust him, but you are thinking of making him an equal partner? Big Mistake.

View on HN

> Anyway, it is super obvious you are not comfortable with this guy and don't trust him, but you are thinking of making him an equal partner? Big Mistake.

I more or less agree and voted you up, but if the guy's asking for 1/3rd of the company at $750k, does that mean he's putting in $250k cash? That might be the lesser of two evils here. Can't really say without more detail, but sometimes you've got to bite the bullet and choose between a few different bad courses of action.

What I'm curious about is if the company has made any revenue yet. Your first revenue is always further away, and smaller, than your projections.

Edit: I just read the part below about not hearing from him since August... probably not someone you'd want directly involved in your team or decisionmaking.

No revenue yet. Our first campaign launched yesterday, and one of our sites is seeing the first hits trickle in now.

> it is super obvious you are not comfortable with this guy and don't trust him

If you don't trust someone, then regardless of how the numbers add up, it's almost certainly a bad idea to have him as a business partner.

Ah yes. My apologies.

Our current burn rate is about $20k a month, which includes modest founder salaries (not quite enough to pay the bills, but it helps).

Most of our burn is actually for third-party data providers, which are essential to our business at this time.

We do think we're close to revenue, but it may be a few months longer before we're actually cashflow positive.

I'll be honest -- there's a divorce between our heads and our guts at this time. From a business perspective, it makes sense to keep the lights on and see where this thing goes. If we walk away from this deal, we put the company in serious jeopardy unless we can find an accelerated path to revenue. So the head says yes, but the gut says no.

[off topic]This raises an interesting question, whether gut and head should agree when conducting business?

Follow your gut, for real.

Shop around for a better deal.

Also remember, your "we just need a few months" is probably off. You'll likely need more than that.

If the company is worth 750k and he's putting in 250k he should only get a quarter of it, since it will then be worth 1m.

yes depends if the valuation is pre or post his money, Jabbles was not explicit.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com