Russell Brand Vanessa the velociraptor and I recently (well maybe not so recently) went to talk about early-stage companies.
Much of the advice was untargeted and overly general to the point of being dangerous. Had we been a mature massive marine mammal company it might have applied, but most of the audience was filled with regal reptiles.
It was only terribly disappointing until the speaker said that it was OK to lightly give “rights of first refusal” because it wouldn’t affect the price.
We felt like screaming (and velociraptors can be very loud) and left.
As a buyer or investor, would I put in the time and effort for due diligence and pricing knowing someone else could just walk in and take the deal after I have done all that work?
As a small company, I can’t agree to a lockup period for due diligence or sell an option for that peroid.
It is likely to to make the otherwise valuable company worthless.
If only that talk had just been worthless rather dangerous.
