This is incorrect. You can acquire and merge nonprofits just like a real corporation. The difference is that you don't have equity, therefore, if you do want to compensate people (e.g. employees or investors or whoever), you need to do so with cash (e.g. bonuses).
Legal folks, can a non-profit be acquired for more than $0?
It's a great deal for Good as they get the fruits of $3.5 Million in charity for free, but I'm not sure how they would pay unless the IP was locked up in a for-profit licensing-centric holding company.
"@chrishughes @techmeme @GOOD as we said to you before we published, confirm or deny on the record, and we're happy to report it. You can't decline to comment beforehand, then refuse to go on record after, then point fingers. And we included the statement from your GM in the piece."
If Jumo had a $$$ figure they were proud of, they would share it. But the first comment captures it best. If Hughes understand that failure is a badge of honor in the tech world, and came clean before this news broke, it would be a non-story, and people would respect him for trying to build such a noble start-up.
So that's how it works now, eh? When a subject won't talk to you, just run your worst suspicion. If they don't go on the record after that, you must be right!
Interesting. I actually interviewed with those guys many months ago- there were vague hints of a "troublesome" developer (who, I suspect, I was interviewing to replace) and a rewrite... but hardly out of the ordinary stuff for a startup.
I've still got to respect Hughes for even trying to make a site so noble. But if it failed, yes, it would be good to just admit it.
I'm surprised they didn't keep at it... Jumo had been live for what, like less than a year? They were entering the same space as care, change, and idealist. Those sites took YEARS to develop their community base. Not saying things need a timeline but geez....
16 people, loaded costs of 100-200k each, plus facilities, legal, contractors, etc. A lot of non-profits have high costs of fundraising, too.
There's an argument that non-profit employees should take lower than market salaries to support the cause, but also there's an argument that they need above-market compensation since there's no equity or potential for an exit.
(I'd take a lower than market salary for a non-profit I really believed in, if I could, but it's not necessarily the case that the best designer or engineer for a non-profit is necessarily going to be willing or able to do so.)
There’s no shame in having a failed startup. There is shame in attempting to maintain the facade of success.