Norgdom
Photos at Southbound
Top Stories
- 3 - Oldest 'hoon' has car imp…
- 3 - Apple's Jobs has hormone…
- 2 - Australian soldier killed…
- 2 - Powerful quakes kill four…
- 2 - New Doctor in the house a…
- 2 - Israeli troops cut Gaza i…
- 1 - House prices defy rates t…
- 1 - Don’t throw out a broke…
- 1 - Lost writer laments the d…
- 1 - Google Options Make Masse…
Just In
- 18:08pm Will Smith top money…
- 16:01pm Slumdog Millionaire:…
- 08:31am Apple's Jobs has hor…
- 08:29am Oldest 'hoon' has ca…
- 09:02am Israeli troops cut G…
- 09:00am New Doctor in the ho…
- 08:53am Powerful quakes kill…
- 08:51am Australian soldier k…
- 20:28pm The Worlds Richest B…
- 17:54pm Time to act UN to im…
My experience with Omnidrive
1points
An angel investor blogs about investing in Omnidrive, Michael Arrington's protege start up headed by Nik Cubrilovic
Read the information here
Comments
It is a sad situation and it sounds like you weren’t the only one who found Nik believable and trustworthy.
I just hope the Omnidrive story doesn’t taint other Australian Web 2 start-ups and their efforts to raise money.
I have heard Nik is back in Australia and I’m assuming at some stage he is going to have to face the music. If the money is not recoverable, he should at least do the honorable thing and face those he’s let down.
You must be logged in to vote
I have a couple of problems with this guy’s blog post.First of all, he’s an investor in the company. When you invest in a company, you take a risk that the investment will fail. You cannot expect to receive a dollar for dollar return if the company fails. Sure, you could make a lot of money if it flips, but when it fails, you lose. That’s the deal.Secondly, he says that he never saw any financials. Well, I’m sorry, but if you throw $100,000 at a guy you find “charismatic and believable” without seeing a copy of the company accounts, then, frankly, you’re an idiot. What’s that about a fool and his money?True, Nik may not have conducted himself as well as he could have. I don’t know. I don’t know the guy, and only know the bare outlines of the story. But if you’re going to criticise a guy because he lost you your money, then you at least first need to make sure you’re giving your money to the right people.
You must be logged in to vote
Jordan - As Clay’s blog says, part of the contract included payback if the $ wasn’t convereted into shares. If Nik didn’t want to pay back the $, then he shouldn’t have agreed to the arrangement upfront. Point taken re: just handing over cash with no real due diligence.
One of the root-causes of this situation is a lack of governance because a company is a start-up. Given that many of start-ups are run by kids with no real-world business experience, some basic governance structures should always be in place. This is especially true because often the “CEO”/founder is a technical-whiz - not a buisness-whiz.
A Board, reporting to all investors, should be set up and a reporting framework (including levels of transparency) agreed to before investors hand over their cash. They should meet regularly and the board should be offering advice. This might slow things down a bit at first, but the business will be built on a solid foundation and will survive if it has a real value proposition.
Once the company grows a real CEO - or at least COO if the founders ego is too big to step down - should be appointed. It seems that Omnidrive was hiring CTO’s, techies etc, but not someone with REAL business knowledge.
You must be logged in to vote
Well, Company Law requires that when a company is set up, a board of directors be appointed, that they should meet regularly and that they should document their meetings. If money is being provided to a company that doesn’t have these structures in place, regardless of “startupedness”, then I’m sorry, but I have minimal sympathy for either party.
You must be logged in to vote
Leave a Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.