This morning I had one of those coffees with one of the founders in the AdCap portfolio. His latest round just isn't closing as quickly as the company needs and our back-of-the-napkin calculation of runway didn't suggest they were going to make it in time. His co-founders are talking about turning in the towel, he's lost a couple key engineers to Facebook, and his CAC and LTV are more upside down than the mortgage on my SoMa loft. He clearly hadn't slept in a while and his hands were shaking, clearly not from the double-shot espresso he barely touched during the meeting. He counted three pay periods left for the couple dozen folks whose livelihoods were his charge. The leads on his next round have stopped returning his calls.
He was looking at the end of the road, the final stop sign on the company he ...
