5 ms·
I had never heard of the company before but really interesting how there was no due diligence by the financiers/VCs before they wired in the money. Is this gene
by sgpl 5y ago
I had never heard of the company before but really interesting how there was no due diligence by the financiers/VCs before they wired in the money. Is this generally the norm?
Also surprising that a company that became a unicorn at its last financing round didn't have a CFO and that the CEO 'maintained control over operations, sales, and record-keeping, including invoicing, and he was the final decision maker on what revenue was booked and included in the company’s financial records.'
Googled the person, apparently he co-founded a company previously that was acquired by Google and he claims to have previously served as the CTO of Zynga and holds 60 technology patents - so perhaps the stellar credentials were a check in the column against auditing financials.
Other tidbits:
- Founded in 2015:
- Series A: $11 mil (at inception)
- Convertible Notes: $24.7 mil (Apr '17 to May '18)
- Series B: $20 mil (Sep/Oct 2018) | valuation: ~$500 mil
- Series C: $60 mil (Nov '19 to Jan '20) | valuation: ~$1.1 bil
While raising Series C round, overstated ARR by about $51 to $55 million in investor presentations. And after audit (in May 2020), valuation dropped to about $300 million.
- Clewza313 5y agoThere are apparently at least two people claiming to be Zynga CTO in 2011-2012: https://mobile.twitter.com/om/status/1291146438265602048 https://mobile.twitter.com/om/status/1291146438265602048
- RileyJames 5y agoMinor correction: the valuation dropped to approximately $300 million. A considerably more significant revaluation.
- sgpl 5y agoThanks for catching that and pointing it out, I misread it I guess. Edited now.
- ikerdanzel 5y agoIf you work in finance sectors and then also in engineering sectors, you will know there is 2 standards of law enforcement. Anything bad you do in finance including manslaughter will be lesser serious compare to what happen outside. So this happening isn't totally unexpected. Madoff himself was investigated many times and "let go". You try do that in a engineering firm with fraud of building a bridge or automobiles.
- x0x0 5y agoAt my funded company: external accountant / renta-cfo, selected from a list of two or three shared by one of the VCs. We could have fought for a person we wanted, but why? At early stages, one competent cfo is probably the same as any other. That person attends board meetings and directly communicates with the board.