The main and very old lesson: don’t start a business with people you don’t trust and know well.
November 2014. I sold my 50% partnership in an online cosmetics company for 1000 EUR after I rejected 1M EUR investment in it.
Why would you ask I rejected 1M EUR investment? Please read on to find out.
2013. My friend Yan introduced me to 2 Israeli guys who were making excellent cosmetics. They were selling via partnerships in a few countries. They were eager to go online but didn’t have knowledge and expertise to make it happen.
2014, February. We decided to join our forces to make a global company to sell cosmetics online. We split 50/50 and agreed that I do the main work. 2 other guys were bringing products and money.
I launched on Amazon UK and our own web site in April. We started getting good sales straight away. I followed with Amazon USA, Canada, and other European countries.
Until September 2014 I was working all my “free time”. I was packing boxes, contacting influencers and bloggers, improving SEO, sending orders. Usually, until 1–2 am daily.
All this time my partners and I had lunches together and communicated via email/phone. I worked by myself.
2014, October. I started working on this full-time when I could pay myself “OK” salary to live and we were growing pretty well.
Yet, end the end of the same month, one of our partners decided to invest 1M EUR in the company. I was given an ultimatum: You cannot match my investment, so you need to be personally responsible/liable for the company. It felt like a manipulation.I was happy that we could get 1M EUR investment, but I couldn’t sleep well for a few days.
At the end I decided to bail out and here is why:- I didn’t know my partners well enough to put everything on the table and put my family at risk;- “Accept or sell out”. If my partners did put such a condition when we started working together. My mind was driving me crazy what they would do later.
The main and very old lesson: don’t start a business with people you don’t trust and have a long history of relationships.