I've been on both sides of the start-up game. I worked at some and I've also invested in some. The first thing, without exception, investors want to see is a fairly comprehensive business plan.
I'm still wondering how this guy received millions of dollars with such a flawed business plan. Either the BP was completely bogus and he managed to hoodwink a lot of people for a few years, or several people just completely missed the boat.
There's a tiny book, On Bullshit, by Harry G. Frankfurt, in which he describes the bullshitter as a person who will say whatever is necessary to achieve what it is he wants to achieve. It's not really an issue of truth vs. lie... the veracity of his statements just doesn't matter to him one way or the other. I'm guessing that Jody was just very adept at divining and telling investors exactly what they wanted to hear, at least in the early going.
Makes me wonder if he was showing rosier financials to investors. It's one thing to fail. It's another to commit fraud. That may have been on his mind when we was contemplating suicide.
I wouldn't recommend venturing that far out into left field -- just the premise of having to lay off half (or more) of your team to stay afloat (In addition, a team you've worked with since the start) would be disheartening & depressing enough to drive even the most capable leaders into a corner.
Toss the bad publicity into the mix while you're simultaneously trying to raise more funding and you've got a dark corner.
Yeah, I shouldn't cast aspersions without evidence. But it's the only reason I can think investors would throw money at such a business. Someone should interview them, because clearly some bad decisions were made all around, not just by the founder.
I've been on both sides of the start-up game. I worked at some and I've also invested in some. The first thing, without exception, investors want to see is a fairly comprehensive business plan.
I'm still wondering how this guy received millions of dollars with such a flawed business plan. Either the BP was completely bogus and he managed to hoodwink a lot of people for a few years, or several people just completely missed the boat.
Either way, it's jaw dropping what happened.