Adeo Ressi. That's who the elusive, pseudonymed founder of theFunded.com is, unmasked by Wired today. If you're like me, you may have missed this whole phenomenon. In fact, I'm guessing more than a few Mashable! readers are blissfully unaware of theFunded, not because it isn't useful, but because they've decided to avoid the whole venture capital route altogether. I know I'm in that boat, having years ago decided on growth-based ventures as my preferred business model.
I've been in and out of startups for the better part of six years, now. A few I played an integral role in, and a few I've simply consulted for on the side. Almost all were private equity funded, or growth based. My long, protracted efforts to create a funded startup finally ended with a meeting with a Italian dressed French-Israeli at a South Florida Starbucks representing a VC firm back in 2004. He loved the pitch, and pledged to support my "promising and revolutionary idea," but wanted no less than 70% of my company, and would compensate me handsomely at $60,000 a year, guaranteed for six months, performance based after that. Not long after that, I gave up completely on the idea of venture capital, assuming that most, if not all investors were as clueless and rude as this man.
All investors may not be of this caliber, but enough exist for theFunded to exist. Wired encapsulates it perfectly:
Visitors to TheFunded can pore over tales of VCs who overwhelm a founder's influence, who change deal terms at the last minute, and who find out what other VCs offered a company to weaken its bargaining position. TheFunded has also become something of a support group for its 3,150 members; when one recent poster asked whether he should accept a deal that would give a VC the sole right to sell his company, he received 19 responses, including "AVOID" and "Run!"
Adeo "Ted" Ressi founded theFunded over the 2006 Christmas holiday following a hostile takeover bid by investors, acting on an opportunity created by a last minute ditch on second round funding for Game Trust.