Startups Should I leave my own startup? |
| Should I leave my own startup? Posted: 30 Oct 2021 04:33 AM PDT Two years ago I opened my first startup. I partnered up with a friend of mine who was in business longer and said he would take care of the investment side of things and also put in money at some point - as he co-owns other companies, who once they pay dividends would be reinvested in our venture. I am a technical partner also a good salesperson, and have been in that particular business for many, many years - so I brought in my connections, employees, technical know-how, some of my own IP, and secured our first big client just before the company opened. Because of my knowledge I run things and became a one-person board member and a CEO. I didn't have much experience in running a LLC, and some knowledge of how to approach VCs. So I trusted my partner to both do this and also reinvest money into the company. That's why I agreed to the 35/65 split in their favour. Also because we had a verbal agreement that I would "run" the company, I didn't object to the company bylaws granting my partner x2 voting rights as a shareholder. Fast-forward to now, my partner offers limited help. I mean he and his people try to be engaged, but they are not in any capacity experience in this market, and their attempts to get VC funding were to, say the least, shitty. Nothing happened. The only ones that really did happen were thanks to my connections. On top of that, even if I do all the grunt work and take legal responsibility for the company, I have been the first one to forego my pay. During those two years, I invested more through not taking a salary yet working full time, than the "investment group" that my co-owner is running has ever put in our company. They dont have to get a salary from my business because they run a couple of others, while I have a non compete clause… Since I was running high on big enthusiasm I kind of was blind to the fact that I'm really a glorified employee here - as I have no real control over the company and need to report to the other owner as an employee, with them saying that they need to discuss every and each decision since they are "securing their investment", and the split isn't anywhere fair. I tried discussing it with my partner, and it's just an argument after an argument. They seem unable to understand my frustration, and are always in the position of "I know better" and promises that never happen. Nothing will change here by communicating Am I right here? What can I do? The company as of now is breaking even, and has a lot of potential, but my hands are tied because of two factors: 1) lack of their promised investment that I could use to scale the business, there's a never-ending stream of promises, but nothing happens 2) the fact that I need to discuss every decision with my partner is killing the business, not only are they not focused on long term investments and looking for quick, high margins -- this structure is a red flag to VCs, basically every VC that I approached personally says: "why in the world do these guys have the majority? They are gonna dilute your shares because you have no voting-rights, and as VCs we invest in a competent board who brings in expertise, vision, and execution, not into some holding companies" I have another good idea for another venture now, have the connections to make it happen, execution-wise, and met people who can make it happen financially, but since I'm a board member tied with no-competition clause, the only way I can make my work take off is to do it with the same guys... What do I do? At the end of the day, I haven't earned more money in the course of those two years than I would do if I just entered even a junior-level position in my area of expertise. I have legal responsibilities for a company that I have no direct control over, only in title. I think there are some hard lessons to learn here. Should I just man up and stay and do my best in the hopes that my 35% is worth something someday, or that I can get a proper salary. Or do I come up with an exit plan? What would u do? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Oct 2021 05:05 AM PDT How do you notify users about important stuff using e-mail? I use SES for transactional emails (verification etc), but I need some simple and affordable solution to send emails to all (or some) users. I don't want to use MailChimp because it's too complex, they offer to many stuff and I'm getting lost easily in their interface. Currently, I got about 5000 mails in my database. [link] [comments]  |
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