

Start-up blackmailed by investor / faces dissolution (/r/advice) - _s
http://www.reddit.com/r/Advice/comments/389c71/3year_startup_market_value_4m_got_blackmailed_by/

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prodigy_2015
The company litigation lawyers called him a business predator and a person
beyond reason, saying that he is equivalent to a drug dealer in terms of his
ethics. The litigation lawyer says that the reason he invested in our company
initially was to steal the company to take it over soon.

We were one of the most promising companies in the state. Now with the 7-month
litigation, we are running out of money and the company is insolvent already.
We are facing possible immediately either bankruptcy or voluntary dissolution.
I am trying my best to close more deals to get revenues into the company but
in the healthcare space, no sales happens fast enough to keep up the legal
fees.

This is my first start-up company which I worked my ass off for three years.
For the first 2.5 years, I did not take any salaries and instead invested
almost all my money into the business. With this litigation dragged along for
7 months, I did not have any income and my husband has been nagging me every
single day to quit and just find a job.

Right now we can file a Federal complaint against this bastard for all the
serious damages he has done to the company, but the business lawyer said that
the damages are hard to quantify using numbers and mostly can be counted as
stipulations, and in the end, we may not get anything from him. Plus we will
run up a huge legal bill for Federal and State litigation together. Another
option is to file company dissolution or bankruptcy. But it seems a real mess
from other advisors' feedback.

Please advise what to do to protect the company or get out of the legal
mess!!! Thank you very much!!!

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yellowapple
A shame that the OP won't post the name of the individual in question; it
would be valuable information to avoid this exact same situation happening to
yet another startup.

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prodigy_2015
I definitely would love to do so, if I am not in a litigation with this
bastard and almost running out of cash to defend me and my company.

This guy is from Denver, CO, 58 years old. I will add him to Founder
Institute's blacklist during the summer, so that he would not mess with other
start-ups.

Would appreciate further advice as to how to get out of this mess.

