[bart_spoon]

Of course they will. What is the magic that separates success from failure that apparently only magically appears within the last 4 weeks with operating capital in the bank? Move your time tables up by 4-8 weeks, including funding raises and closing operations, and none of this is an issue.

[adastra22]

According to what’s been said, they were chasing opportunities that they thought would finalize within that timeframe. 4-6 weeks ago they had good leads for closing a deal in 4-6 weeks. None of those happened to pan out this time, but every startup has been at a point like this where runway is coming up short. This is normal and expected operating conditions.

[sroussey]

No, when you are in the fog of war/fundraising, it can be very difficult to decide between 100% let everyone go, verse some other percent where everyone keeps their jobs. Very much depends on the circumstances.

If no one was picking up their calls and it was obvious, then sure.

Not much is really that clear though.

In my tiny case a while back, I wiped my liquid savings to get me employees some time. Can't do that with over a thousand employees though!

[michaelt]

> What is the magic that separates success from failure that apparently only magically appears within the last 4 weeks with operating capital in the bank?

I've heard it said that every boss of a failed company will tell you that they almost got a last minute investment, or almost made a big sale, or almost got acquired, if they'd only had an extra week or two it'd have all been different.

Of course that could be wishful thinking - or a sign that in the final days they were offering fire sale prices.

[avalys]

If you can still operate the business for another 8 weeks, there's a chance that things will still work out, and it's pretty pessimistic to preemptively shut it down because you assume you're going to fail. Pessimists don't generally find themselves in the role of founder/CEO of a startup in the first place.

[arrosenberg]

Actually good founders and CEOs do tend to be realists. They know when to hold and when to fold, and they place a high value the well being of the people especially when things go poorly.

Manic founders who insist that a rescue will come right up until the last second often leave people feeling burned and don't get as many second chances when things don't go well.

[ska]

> there's a chance that things will still work out,

There is a big difference between a less than 1% chance and an 80% chance here. Part of the job is knowing that difference, and how to handle/communicate it.

[pc86]

Especially when you're only doing it so you can pay your employees 8 weeks' severance when the alternative is 6 or 8 weeks' pay while working.

[mhandley]

Exactly that magic happened with our startup last year.