Business Entrepreneurship Startups Founders vc funding
MacTheVC.eth
MacTheVC.eth

@MacConwell

12 Tweets 4 reads Aug 26, 2020
Twitter
Story/Tread - 1/
Startups fail for all sorts of reasons and some are avoidable. This is a story about an amazing company I loved and went so hard for and failed because the founders were scared to ask for help
#vc #funding #startups #founders
2/ I'd like you to meet the amazing company of Javazen. They made a coffee and green tea blend that would give you the kick you needed without the crash.
#vc #funding #startups #founders
2/ I'd like you to meet the amazing company of Javazen. They made a coffee and green tea blend that...
3/ When I met them they were a team of three from the University of Maryland and were crushing it. Their coffee was already being sold in Wholefood, Wegmans, and Trader Joe.
#vc #funding #startups #founders
4/ At the time they were looking to transition from ground coffee to coffee in a "Brew Bag" they found a unique material in china that would allow you to brew your coffee in a single bag serving.
#vc #funding #startups #founders
4/ At the time they were looking to transition from ground coffee to coffee in a "Brew Bag" they fou...
5/ But, they needed capital to finish out the testing of the bags and to create a special machine to make them because of the unique material and size. This product was to compete with Keurig and was biodegradable
#vc #funding #startups #founders
6/ So we invested and they were off to the races. Then they ran into issues. they couldn't compete with Keurig on price so they needed to pivot their customer base which was fine.
#vc #funding #startups #founders
7/ then a few months later I get an email that the CEO was leaving and taking a job. Clearly, this is an issue. I called the team right away to figure out what the hell was happening
#vc #funding #startups #founders
8/ Come to find out they had burnt through the money and were starting to go in debt. I was completely confused because they had large purchase orders from Wegmans to go out. That's when I learned they didn't have the money for the production run
#vc #funding #startups #founders
9/ When I asked when did they know this might be an issue they told me 4 or 6 months earlier. I almost lost my mind. Had they said something then we could have easily found them the money
#vc #funding #startups #founders
10/ When I asked why they didn't say anything they said they thought they could figure it out on their own and they didn't want to look like they couldn't handle it
#vc #funding #startups #founders
11/ This almost made me cry. Why? Because that's what we are here for. we are partners. Founders need to be able to share the good and the bad. especially the bad because that's when we can help the most.
#vc #funding #startups #founders
12/ Moral of the story, Founders need to make sure they are always honest and upfront with their investors about the good and the bad. And VC's aren't the best at following every company in their portfolio smh 🤦🏾‍♂️
#vc #funding #startups #founders

Categories

Business Entrepreneurship Startups Founders vc funding

Some tweets missing

Loading suggestions...