Hypothetically speaking, a startup gets some rounds of investment from VCs, operates for a few years, and run out of runway. What do these final months look like? Do the investors try to get their money back?
Hypothetically speaking, a startup gets some rounds of investment from VCs, operates for a few years, and run out of runway. What do these final months look like? Do the investors try to get their money back?
I was at one for the end. Here’s how we saw it go down.
Hyperbole increased on the upper floor. Lots of "big talk " about the future and less chat about the job at hand.
There was a round of death rattle hiring where a whole bunch of people were added to the team.
Then last in first out.
Some of those new hires were there for less than 3 months before they were let go.
Then bloodletting. One or two redundancies a month. Their work being shared between the remaining staff. Told each round would be the last as the company restructured.
The worst bit, the people being fired knew they were going when they came to work in the morning to find they had been locked out of all the IT systems. They then spent the rest of the day sat around waiting to be summoned to be let go.
Meanwhile, the upper floor seem to be driving new cars and spending a lot of time outside the building. You also notice some new management faces and overhear chat about another business.
This massively increased workload and killed morale. Going to work felt like putting on your dead best buddy’s coat and doing an impression of them to yourself in the mirror whilst you had to hold down your own job, which had gone from pressured with purpose to pointless slog.
But in return you are promised a raise in the future.
And then one day… You turn up. Your team are all stood outside. The doors are locked and the paperwork is on the post. Most of us got paid most of our last paycheck.