Meet the Company
This party products manufacturer was a viral college product that launched during the pandemic and quickly gained traction. Its flagship item, a beer bong that doubled as a coozy, immediately became a social media sensation and attracted millions of followers along with strong sales among students across the country.
In 2022, the company peaked with nearly $3 million in revenue. The company grew organically through platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and never raised institutional funding beyond a successful Kickstarter campaign.
As the founding team graduated from college and moved on, the content-driven growth strategy slowed. To revive the brand, they took out a loan to rebrand and launch a new version of the product, but it failed to generate sustainable momentum.
The Challenge
Aaron Alpeter took over operations in October 2023 as a caretaker of the business. During this time, he saw some promising activity during the Q4 holiday season. A viral TikTok campaign led by an influencer brought in nearly $100k in sales, but the spike was short-lived. High click volume did not translate into strong, lasting conversion, and operational costs were too steep to justify.
The company’s biggest issue was compliance. The business had nexus in 48 states, which meant they were spending thousands per month just to stay compliant. Shutting down meant more than simply closing a bank account. It required dissolving entities and accounts across nearly every U.S. state.
“I wasn’t the founder. But I owed it to the stakeholders to close the company cleanly. What I didn’t expect was just how complicated that would be.”
He explored working with attorneys and CPAs, but the scope and cost of managing the paperwork across so many jurisdictions made that route unappealing. That was when a peer recommended SimpleClosure.
Adding to the complexity, Aaron had found a buyer for the brand, which is now thriving. However, the buyer preferred an asset purchase rather than acquiring the entity, so the entity still needed to be formally dissolved.
The Solution
Aaron reached out to SimpleClosure in November 2024, and immediately began the onboarding process.
SimpleClosure’s platform gave him access to a personalized shutdown plan. Through a user-friendly portal, he was able to stay informed about what was happening without managing the details himself. The team also collaborated directly with the company’s sales tax partner to handle multi-state tax filings.
By early 2025, the shutdown was complete.
The Outcome
SimpleClosure took what could have been a costly and time-consuming process and turned it into a managed, streamlined exit.
The platform saved Aaron dozens of hours by preparing state-specific paperwork, coordinating filings, and keeping investors updated with formal closure documents, including tax write-off letters and dissolution notifications.
“This is a valuable service,” Aaron shared. “For people who don’t want to moonlight as lawyers, SimpleClosure makes it easy.”
Aaron’s story represents a growing customer profile—not just founders winding down passion projects, but also operators and acquirers who step in to close companies they did not build. In 2023 and 2024, hundreds of e-commerce, fintech, and SaaS startups faced similar situations, and many found themselves without a roadmap With SimpleClosure, Aaron was able to exit responsibly, protect investor relationships, and move forward.