The Deal is Dead
It’s May of 2016. It seemed like Maura and Syfon were ready to go, about to get a half million dollars from SWAG angel investors, when suddenly something has gone terribly wrong.
Maura’s first pitch had gone well. Her first pitch to SWAG had gone spectacularly well. During the following weeks, she’d been working well with the due diligence committee. Syfon had a credible team, some early traction, an interesting market, good prospects. Maura felt like a star. She’d given herself the luxury of enjoying the ride, at least briefly.
But in the last meeting, last night, the good vibe changed to eery suspicious silence. Maura fielded a series loaded questions, coming seemingly out of nowhere, at a point in due diligence when normally things were getting easier. There was doubt whether her software was really hers, or actually developed while she was employed by her ex husband. And there was a question about her personal legal problems, a reference, apparently, to a custody battle the previous year.
Clearly something is up, but what? New competition? Some fatal flaw? Or – much more likely, in Maura’s mind – sabotage. Somebody with an axe to grind. It might be Natalie Yalonis, former partner, with whom she had a falling out over questions of right and wrong, business ethics. Or it might be Donald Ford, her ex husband, still and always seeking revenge.
That first morning, the day after, as she shares the disastrous turn of events with Matt, her mentor, Maura suspects Caroline or Donald but can’t be sure. She tells Matt the story of Donald. Nobody would believe it.
Matt calls in some favors and gets the deep background. Angel groups keep these things confidential, for obvious reasons, but Matt knows most of the players. He finds out that Don Wilson, a SWAG member investor, lumber millionaire, has campaigned with the due diligence team. He claimed he was on to something the others didn’t know, about the software, and her. It was a smear campaign, innuendos. He had been silent, in the background, at the meeting. So where did he get that? And why? It doesn’t make sense. Neither Maura nor Matt have any history with Wilson, but this feels personal.
Wilson won’t talk to either of them. He doesn’t return calls.
The next day, Matt and Maura talk to their lawyer about the software ownership allegations. There is nothing there. It’s completely defensible.
At lunch after the meeting with the lawyer, Matt and Maura, still reeling, calculate next steps with the assumption that Syfon won’t get the money. First problem is what they do about Celia? She was going to be moving to the US and coming on full time, but can they do that without the SWAG? They discuss Matt’s efforts to land a sugar daddy first client.
Meanwhile, Celia and Carlos are struggling with the move. They both want it, but Carlos has a good job in Mexico City and no job in the US. Anti-immigrant sentiment worries him. His family is concerned about him moving or not based on his wife’s job. He’s a Stanford MBA.
And Janet’s worried that Matt is going to get caught in the crossfire. They argue. She knows Maura and has always liked her, but worries that Matt is making this one of his causes, and is going too far. Maybe he shouldn’t have given up his agency too early. Maybe this is about him, struggling, as he’s reached his sixties?
Then Maura gets Donald’s petition for more time with their son. The petition, a formal filing like a lawsuit, alleges that a boy needs his father. But does that make sense, given the serious custody evaluation of three years earlier? Or is it Donald lashing out? Was it prompted by the specter of Maura getting funded and outshining him?
Then the other shoe drops. And then Skip tips Matt to Natalie’s new company. Sounds like Syfon. Natalie’s the main founder, and Don Wilson and Donald Ford are backers.
Maura contemplates Syfon and her legal situation. More lawyer costs coming. And the SWAG deal is done. Money will be running short again.
The long uphill trail
Syfon was born from need. Problems and solutions. As the world
Maura and Donald
A great beginning
The first big fall
The second big fall
The custody evaluation
Matt and Janet
Another great beginning
You just blink
The dark wood
Celia and Carlos
Anticipation
The gift of the magi
The family dinner at Zihua
Unanswered prayers
Sprippets 