// What an Investor Thinks When a Founder Ghosts

I haven't heard from one of my founders in over a year.

No responses to at least 20 emails (in fact, it bounces back now), calls, texts, and DMs.

Nothing.

Before that, we hadn't talked in 8 months, and it took much reaching out to schedule last year's call.

Before that, we'd been in touch at least a few times a month, if not weekly, via text, email, and zoom, for 2 years.

So, I'm going to email the other investors, see if they know anything, and tell my accountant to write off the investment this year.

It's so frustrating.

I get it. No one starts a company expecting it to fail. But if it's over, the responsible thing to do is to make it official.

✅ Close out legal and tax obligations.

✅ File the paperwork properly.

✅ Communicate with investors.

A founder I backed recently shut down his company, and he was transparent, explored every option to keep it alive, and when there were no moves left, he wound it down properly.

I'd invest in him again.

On the flip side, this other founder has disappeared, ghosted investors, and left everything in limbo. It's made me look bad, wasted my time, and, frankly, annoyed me even more than losing my investment.

This founder has burned my bridge forever.

I shared this information into the empty void of the text string between my founder and I, but there's a startup that specializes in making shutdowns clean, legal, and easy: Starcycle.

They handle legal, admin, and tax under one roof. There's no worry of trying to find multiple experts or the risk of things slipping through the cracks.

They charge a flat fee (no hourly rate) and provide upfront, transparent pricing, which starts at $300.

They even help communicate with your investors.

I'll put the link to their site in the comments - FYI - mention my name, and you'll get a discount.

Hopefully this is helpful to a founder out there or maybe, just maybe my founder will see this and end up doing the right thing?

PS - This is not sponsored in any way; you get the benefit, not me. Contact me if you want a direct intro.