Shutting Down Sucks — But It Doesn't Have To

“Shutting down” — the dreaded words no founder ever wants to hear. 

At the time, I had no idea what shutting down actually entailed, so going home that evening from the board meeting I had homework. I started researching online for information on how to properly shut down a company, but could not find any substantial resource I could trust. 

Next, I thought of searching through my LinkedIn network for founders that previously shut down and ask them about their experience. Unfortunately, I came back empty handed. Turns out people don’t like posting about their failures. 

When I asked our lawyer (we were using a top-five tech law firm) for help, he said, “We don’t really deal with shut downs.” Seriously?!

Our accounting firm said the same.

I felt lost, stressed and as if I were literally the first business in America shutting down. All I wanted was a simple, transparent solution to shut down; I wanted some help at this low point in my company and career. 

This pain and frustration has sat with me for some time now. 

I started interviewing other founders that shut down their companies, and realized I was not alone. It became very clear very quickly that there is a true pain point. There are no good solutions for shutting down and many companies are struggling with this every day. I found this even more puzzling given the statistics of startup failures — 93% of startups eventually shutter.

That’s why I decided to launch SimpleClosure — a product that founders could rely on when they need help the most. Our goal: to become the easiest and most trustworthy way to shut down your startup. Taking the process from months and years to days and weeks, all while giving founders confidence that it’s done right! We recognize that failure is part of life. What motivates us is not companies shutting down, rather helping founders move onto their next thing with the peace of mind they deserve. 

We’ve come a long way in a short few months, and I’m very proud to announce a few updates:

• We raised a $1.5M pre-seed round. Co-led by Michael Vaughn and Jon Pomerantz of Vera Equity and Rex Salisbury of Cambrian Ventures, with strong participation from a slew of high-profile SMB-focused startup founders and executives including Gusto, Plaid, Brex and others. These startup ecosystem insiders offer a wealth of industry insights, connections, and expertise. While money is important, what really excites me about this raise is having experienced investors and operators around the table that believe in the mission and are willing to back the team. To me, that’s the biggest value of closing a round. Thank you for taking a leap of faith!

• We are coming out of stealth and into public beta! For the past few months, we have been silently working, learning, testing, iterating and building to serve the needs of our customers, who span from LLCs to venture-backed corporations that have raised +$10M in funding. Our growth has been all organic and word of mouth. A special thank you to our first customers that trusted us so early in the process. We are excited to emerge from stealth and continue building a world-class product for the masses. 

A few personal notes: 

• I’m very grateful to be working alongside such a talented team. We’ve put together a great foundation and I am looking forward to seeing our team continue to grow and evolve over the upcoming years.

• As we build, we’re continuously excited by all the potential verticals we can tackle. Shutting down is a VERY big problem. We are not building a single product that serves only the founders of companies shutting down. There is an ecosystem that benefits and suffers when companies shutter: Angels, VCs, Vendors, Customers, IRS, Employees, Accountants, Lawyers — and the list goes on. We are here to serve the ecosystem and build a platform that serves their pain points as well! 

This is just the beginning! LFG!