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Comment by fsk | Hacker News Reader

Why was your investor only putting in capital one month at a time? Shouldn't he have put in enough to finance your first batch of hardware?

I.e., if you knew it would cost you 12 months' expenses to make your first batch, the investor should have put in 12 months, rather than 1 month at a time for 6 months (leaving you stuck now).

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Sounds about right in hindsight. But the damage is done. This didn't come up earlier because he was in his sense 'mentoring' us, overseeing how we spent the money, how we hired etc. Anyways i was a techie, and was out of these flows. What do startups do to get out of such a spot?

Your best option might be "Write this off as a learning experience and get a better cofounder next time."

Since you're clearly desperate, even if you do raise money, it's going to severely dilute your equity.

Do you walk away now, or waste another 3-12 months trying to pull things together? Don't make the sunk costs fallacy.

I agree because my gut tells me that all the important lessons have been covered. Except "know when to fold 'em". That's a class worth testing out of.

The great thing is that we have a really good product. I am saying this objectively and not out a creator's bias. If we can pull off another 4-6 months, the entire thing will work like a dream. And there is little coming in our way, considering that the product we've made is superior to many by global standards. That coupled with the fact that the Indian market lags by a year or two gives us a real head-start here.

This makes folding cards not just hard, but rather imprudent. Especially considering how startups with much less to show for than us are running around with so much money.

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