Comments on: 7 Lessons from Zantaz firesale

By: park3

park3 — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 22:00:42 +0000

I would add #8, which is to carefully diligence one’s partners before joining up with them.

This applies equally to investors, co-founders, employees, etc. Get references, ask the people how they managed bad situations, find out the reasons for any negative feedback.}

By: gniesar

gniesar — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:21:45 +0000

An excellent summary of principal misdeeds . However, there is more. For instance, the self-dealing Board choosing to sell for cash instead of IPO wherein their preferences would have evaporated. It appears that even the VCs knew that the preferences and warrants in the Series E burnout financing were a double dip such that the warrants would be dropped if the company went for a sale instead of an IPO. That is just one instance of additional self-dealing that supported an overall plan to effectively shift equity from the founder group and early risk taking investors, to the VCs who controlled the Board after their initial investment.}

By: sbyrnes

sbyrnes — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:06:35 +0000

That’s really good advice. Many of us are good at building companies – but the process of selling is just as important for the end result. Unfortunately, just like with getting started, if you haven’t done it before it’s easy to get lost.}

By: adambenayoun

adambenayoun — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:46:14 +0000

I heard so many *bad* things about Roland van der Meer (comVentures partner), that I really want to think that the guy just ended his career, but I guess i will be wrong.}