Help Drew Rebuild After Business Setback

Hey there, I'm Drew and this isn't something I ever thought I'd find myself doing, but here I am. Here is the context. There was a Kickstarter run by a dice-making company to make one-of-a-kind molds for backers. I believe the project raised around $250K. The lead of that Kickstarter mis-spent the money and wasn't able to get the backers what they ordered, so the the lead of this Kickstarter went to someone I knew for help, and this new person bought out the Kickstarter's company to make the molds. The original lead of the Kickstarter never came through with making the molds with the person I knew, and this is how I ended up getting involved.

In June of last year, I was living in South Carolina with my former partner and was propositioned by a friend of mine, who I will call HIM, to join in a business opportunity. He wanted me to be the person who would manufacture the dice molds. At the time, I was working an Organ and Recovery Transport job that I had been at for over 2 years and was making $32/hr, so in taking the job with HIM, I would be taking an $8/hr pay decrease but more hours. After discussion with my former partner, I decided to move on with this venture. It would require me to relocate to a new house to accommodate the size of the manufacturing as it required roughly 500 sq ft of space. In August 2023, my former partner and I found a house in North Carolina that would be perfect for this job and would be somewhere we wanted to live, and had access to a basement which we would not have been able to acquire in South Carolina.

HIM was made aware of the price increase of the new house and the additional space available at the new house which would offer 485 sq ft of basement for the manufacturing. At this time, HIM wanted us to move on the house and wrote a Letter of Employment to help us get the house, showing that I would have steady, reliable work as soon as I moved there. Our lease at the house we were at did not end until November 1st, 2023, and the lease for the new house started in September of 2023. So for the months of September and October, we were paying double rent, double bills. HIM told me he wanted me fully moved up to the new house by October 1st, 2023 to begin the job. So I was fully moved into the new house by September 28th, 2023, while my former partner had to stay at the old house until October 29th, 2023 to finish her clients. Between both moves, double rent, and double bills, my former partner and I spent a combined total of roughly $14K.

The first month, HIM stated he was having a hard time getting the manufacturing insurance for the house. This ended up being a recurring issue for months to come. The house in North Carolina required HIM just to have $1 million in General Business insurance to run operations in the house and did not require manufacturing insurance. But I understand why he wanted it. This trend of no new information continued into December. With a vast majority of my savings now gone, I needed a job to hold me over until this dice mold job took off, so I got a job part-time as a security guard to supplement some income. This job lasted until mid-January and brought in minimal income. I was later assaulted at this job and actually had to appear in court to give my victim statement. With the assault happening, HIM had sent me positive news that he finally got the insurance approved; now he just needed to have the insurance contract signed. He also stated that he was also waiting on a corporate client to finalize a deal in order to have the money to finally send the equipment, so he was now waiting on that. HIM, however, told me I could leave the security job now that the insurance had been approved. I was then left unemployed for 5 months.

That brings us to now when I have gotten messages from trusted employees and friends at his company that he only gave half pay to the employees for the month of January, and was later told by HIM that he is admitting fault and his International portion of his business may become insolvent. His dice company is an international company and is based in a different country and had a warehouse in the US.

Long story short, this whole experience with HIM crushed my mental health, strained my relationship, and financially ruined me. In total, I lost close to $30K, which included all of my savings, and right now I'm just trying to at least build my savings back again so that I can move on with my life.