30 Heaven forbid if you must wind it up

 

This chapter covers

  • What can you do when you see the end of the runway but there is nowhere to turn?
  • If the shutdown is inevitable, what does a team-centric, timely windup of the company look like?
  • Are there insider stories that could be helpful to prepare for (or avoid) the worst?

Let’s suppose your company can’t be saved. Either you have tried everything and it is just not working, or the investors have pulled the plug, and you have been ordered to shut down your startup. In this anecdote, we will talk about what you need to do, who can help you, what the process looks like, and how to finalize dissolution, put it behind you, and go on to your next thing. There is no shame in a startup failing. At the very least, you learn a lot—I sure did when it happened to me. The next one you do will be better because of what you learned this time.

30.1 Your startup is running out of runway

As you run out of runway and head toward that cliff, do not let your bank balance fall all the way to zero. Shutting down will cost some money. If you drive the cash down to zero, you have backed your investors into a corner, forcing them to put in enough money to have a clean shutdown. But they will not be happy about that.

30.2 The goals

30.3 The process

30.3.1 Formal resolution

30.3.2 People needed

30.3.3 Documents needed

30.3.4 Asset resolution

30.3.5 Debt resolution

30.3.6 Relationship care

30.3.7 Final dissolution

30.4 The moral of this anecdote