Topic map / The company and its duties
12 questions
Lavingia, Migdał, and Gascoigne each describe a version of a plan that did not continue as first imagined: a smaller company, a sale of the technology, a founder stepping back. Their essays are not a menu. They are a reason to name the cash date and the duties.
1.What is the cash date if the hopeful receipt does not arrive?
2.Who needs to know, and by which date?
3.What spending stops this week?
4.Which duty to staff, customers, or a tax authority comes first?
5.What personal guarantee or family money is already committed?
6.Is this a turnaround, a sale, or a stop, and what evidence would separate them?
Pass 2 · strengthened
On a sale, separate the headline price, anything that depends on later results, who controls the work, and terms tied to someone’s job.
7.Which conversation are you delaying because it makes the trouble real?
8.Who on your list is a lawyer, an accountant, or a creditor, rather than an audience?
9.If you started again, what would you need to close properly first?
10.When an earnout depends on future performance, who controls the budget, the launch, employment, and the measurement?
Pass 2 · new
Contingent money is only as real as the control required to produce it.
11.What should happen in parallel when an incident could involve fraud, a contract breach, account compromise, and insolvency?
Pass 2 · new
Mark every path that applies. Do not wait for one label before you protect the bank, the record, and the contract.
12.How do you compare a negotiated resolution with an enforceable remedy, including time, cost, and practical recovery?
Pass 2 · new
Write both answers. A named forum is not a forum you can reach.
Reflecting on my failure to build a billion-dollar company · Sahil Lavingia
Lavingia writes that he laid off 75 percent of Gumroad, shrinking the company from 20 people to 5, and that a billion-dollar goal had been a terrible goal. One founder’s account. It is not a rule for your company.
A postmortem on our $2.5 million database gateway · Jacek Migdał, Quesma
A founder’s account of raising $2.5 million, staying in pilots, splitting with a cofounder, and selling the technology. He argues for a concrete customer action, not only verbal interest. His account is not a base rate.
My experience with burnout as a startup founder · Joel Gascoigne, Buffer
Gascoigne describes a six-week break in 2017 after layoffs and the departure of his cofounder and CTO, and writes that adrenaline had been hiding the cost. One founder’s account.
Fortis Advisors LLC v. Krafton, Inc. · Court of Chancery of Delaware
C.A. No. 2025-0805-LWW, Vice Chancellor Will. Submitted 9 January 2026, decided 16 March 2026. The opinion was read for this pass. Phase One entered judgment that Krafton breached the equity purchase agreement by terminating the key employees without valid cause and by seizing operational control of Unknown Worlds. The remedy is specific performance: Edward Gill is reinstated as CEO with operational authority, and the base earnout testing period is extended by 258 days to 15 September 2026. The opinion says whether Krafton’s actions wrongfully impaired the earnout, and whether any resulting money damages are owed, are reserved for the second phase. One Delaware dispute. Not a rule for other contracts, and not a current docket status.
Single-trigger and double-trigger acceleration · Cooley GO
US startup and venture practice writing. The page says the terms may be understood differently in other contexts, including public companies. Single-trigger acceleration is vesting that speeds up on one event, often a sale, and sometimes an involuntary termination. It says this is not the norm even for founders and key executives. Double-trigger acceleration needs two events. Rights depend on the grant and on local law. The page does not create a power to take shares that have already vested.
DFSA impersonated in an advance-fee scam · Dubai Financial Services Authority
The DFSA says scammers impersonate it, claim it holds a box of money and gold, demand 11.1 percent so the package can leave the country, pose as a fictitious Compliance Department officer, send AI-generated images, and pressure a deadline. It says do not respond and do not send money, report correspondence through the DFSA complaints function, and if you have already sent money, contact your bank and the relevant police authority immediately. The page does not say to freeze every payment.
UAE law on bankruptcy · UAE government portal, u.ae
The portal describes Federal Decree-Law No. 51 of 2023. Article 3, as returned by a second fetch of the legislation portal after a direct request was blocked, applies to companies subject to the Commercial Companies Law, a natural person with the capacity of a trader, and a licensed civil company of a professional nature. It does not apply to government companies whose own documents set special rules, free-zone companies that follow special rules, Central Bank licensed banks, financial institutions and insurers under separate laws, or personal, family, and consumption debts including a home. The same u.ae page also says the law does not apply to natural individuals, which is broader than the trader limb. Follow Article 3 and ask counsel. This site does not recommend a jurisdiction.
Mediation Service Centre · DIFC Courts
DIFC Courts describes a mediation service facilitated by its Panel of Mediators, and says the process is confidential. A Commercial Mediation Scheme with The Mediation Hub MENA runs from 1 July to 31 December 2026 and offers eligible users a complimentary one-hour conflict management consultation and a 50 percent reduction in administration fees if they proceed. The page does not say mediation is the cheapest route, or that a result can be enforced in a particular case. This site does not recommend it.