| I'm founder of a two-man bootstrapped company writing B2B financial risk analysis software out of London. Lots of interest, we're in advanced due diligence with a couple of very large banks and expect the first sales and rapid growth in the next couple of months. So far, so good. We were toying with looking for some angel investment, and about eight weeks ago were introduced to a local angel investor. After a a few meetings and lunches he came up with the following offer: - Investor puts in £200k in return for 20% of the company. Rather more than I wanted to part with but OK as a starting point for negotiation. - Investor promises to help drive company growth as he has contacts and experience, wants to be involved. Not ideal as we have no idea how he'd perform - in a two-man startup we can't carry a third person who wants to help. - Investor requires the company to pay him back the £200k at 12% interest rate, personal guarantees no doubt required but I didn't stick around long enough to ask. The reason the offer was interesting was the light in which it showed the investor. To make such a bizarre offer (basically, to lend us money at a crazy rate, and in addition to demand a large chunk of the company in return for the unproven value he said he could add) made me ask: what would he be like to deal with on a day-to-day basis? We walked away. What other crazy offers have startup founders seen? |
<cue communal groans>