Last week I submitted a story here called, “We’re Shutting Down and I’m Scared“.
All I can say is, WOW! I never expected such an incredible response.
Between here and Hacker News, it took me two days just to go through all of the awesome words of wisdom and support. I read everything — three times. I even read those of you who told me to “quit whining” and to “man up”. Thank you, ALL, for your support.
I’m not yet ready to reveal my company or name, I may never be. But, for all of you who offered your advice, I want to at least share with you how things turned out.
My wife is now aware. This, by far, was the most difficult discussion to have. I felt like I was about to confess to her that I had been unfaithful. And in a sense, I was. As many of you had suggested, this is the one person I should have been the most upfront with.
For two days, I tried to find the right time to tell her. I kept finding reasons to wait. Finally, on the third morning, I said “we need to talk”. Apparently, those four words mean something else entirely to women, which kind of worked in my favor. Having said that, it also set the wrong tone for the discussion, so I’d would advise others against that approach.
It turns out that she had been preparing herself for this moment. Quite frankly, I wasn’t sure how to take that. She could see the writing on the wall and knew by my actions that things weren’t going as well as I had portrayed. In the end, she was incredibly supportive. She was concerned, but she was also supportive.
We’re still broke, but that’s no different than the position we were in prior to this decision.
I committed to my wife that I would find employment, rather than chasing another dream — at least for now. The search is now underway.
Investors have been contacted. Many, I’ve had personal discussions with this week. Most were supportive, a few, not so much. As much as I understand that they’re all professional investors, I still can’t help but feel a personal responsibility to them. If I have the chance to make it right with them at some point, I will.
Our debt is still a concern. We’ve contacted an attorney to properly handle this, but I’m still unsure of how this will all turn out. We don’t believe that we signed for anything personally, but who knows. All previous employees have been paid, it’s just creditors that concerns me.
Some of you had suggested to always leave enough money in the bank to pay off debt. While I don’t disagree with that in principle, I can tell you that shutting down wasn’t the intended plan. When we had $25,000 left in the bank, we were still committed to making it work. Maybe it was blind faith or just foolishness, but we believed. Honestly, if I were in that same position again, I can’t tell you that my choice would be different.
I’m never going to wear this failure as a badge of honor, but I’ve begun to see that this isn’t as devastating as it felt last week.
I’m an entrepreneur, I’ll recover. Thank you for helping me see that.