Losing my home, lost my job and company shut down
Donation protected
I was on the team at a high-tech startup company a couple years ago. We made great progress but our funding ran low and higher-ups made the decision to close the business a couple months ago. Everyone was let go, including me. I have been determined to find a new job, but it's been so difficult, especially since this happened during the holiday season when many companies don't hire new staff. I've used up my personal savings and am selling my car and other possessions in the hope I can pay my bills. I'm now at the end of my options and need help in order to bridge my life until I have new work. I'm highly skilled and know I will find a job but I urgently need financial assistance to get by until I do.
Two and a half years ago, I helped start a business with a group of very smart young friends. Most of the original team were college students and they recruited me because I’m older with more experience. We successfully raised seed funding and were able to lease an office and hire additional employees and interns. As one of the founders, I invested heavily in the company and them. I believed that the founding team in a business should be the most committed to its success and invest in it more than they receive in its early stage. I moved across country to support the business and even took a reduction in my pay. All the while, I invested much of what I owned into it. Unfortunately, in the end, we were not successful and that has left me with mounting bills and debts as I look for a new job.
We made great progress building the company during 2017 and 2018. We raised funds, closed some sales and made presentations around the country. Sadly, we were unable to generate enough sales soon enough and ran out of funds last November. The saddest day of my life was having to tell the team working under me that the decision was made to cease operations. The people we hired were the best and most loyal people I’ve ever worked with and so it was heartbreaking.
However, I invested more than most in the company, both in terms of money and some of my own personal items that we used to help the business. I was not paid in order for me to enrich myself off the business. The goal was to make the business a success and then for everyone to do well from it. That’s normal in the startup world. Investors don’t fund a new business just so the owners will take the money and run. They invest in order to create a successful enterprise and only then should the founders be rewarded. In fact, I put most of my salary – other than personal bills – back into the company. I had hoped that we would reach that point, but we did not. When everyone was let go, we weren’t able to cash out unused vacation time or other benefits. Everyone was essentially left with whatever they’d saved up until that time. Because of the sacrifice I made for the team and the risk I took on to support them, when we were all let go, I wasn’t reimbursed. In fact, I was not compensated for the value of my investment and my shares were forfeited.
That left me with just what I had in the bank. I’ve used that to pay bills while searching for a new job. It’s been very difficult. Trying to find work during the Thanksgiving to New Year holidays was fruitless since few companies hire during that time of year. Still, I am actively searching and not giving up. The hardest part is that my personal savings is used up. I’ve already had to take a family loan. I never anticipated it would take so long to find work and unemployment insurance is never enough. I have put up my Xterra for sale hoping that might help a bit and I am putting more possessions online for sale. I’m trying to help myself, but it’s just not enough. That’s why I am here asking for your help so I can cross this bridge.
I don’t want to just ask for donations. It’s important to know the story of how I got to this place.
Our team had its genesis in early 2016 when the company’s original founders started informally discussing the possibility of building a small satellite. Over the following months, the idea coalesced into a new company. In June of that year, everyone met in Manhattan for several days of discussions and a small rocket and weather balloon launch. This first group of people, including me, would form the core of the company for the next year.
In February 2017, the company was reorganized and incorporated in order to be better positioned for outside investment, which became a central effort of the founders through the summer. Work on the business plan, pitch deck, financial projections and project plans occupied the team alongside preliminary design work
We completed negotiations for our Seed funding at the end of August 2017 and operations began to ramp up rapidly the next month. One of the first priorities was to hire a dedicated full-time propulsion system lead engineer to address the core focus of R&D efforts. He began working for us in October and under his technical leadership the company had a series of discussions that resulted in the decision to select a hydrogen peroxide and RP-1/kerosene based propellant for primary launch vehicle propulsion.
November was a period of rapid change. An immediate need to consolidate staff, located across the United States, resulted in relocating to Union City, NJ in order to work at the company’s primary office. This meant that most personnel were now located in the northeast U.S. and better able to collaborate, with other employees traveling to work on occasion. Concurrent with staff relocation, spending increased in order to complete outfitting the Union City facility with tooling, equipment, computers and other office items necessary to proceed with development of the common propulsion system.
Many startups in their early rapid growth stage experience challenges and we were no different. During the winter and early spring, many external factors made technical progress challenging and inhibited smooth operations. The historic Silk Mill building complex housing the company’s offices was, and continues to be, under complete renovation. Flooding was a repeated problem during demolition and rebuilding activities. Beginning in December and lasting through the winter, the offices were repeatedly flooded in up to several inches of water from leaks in the ceiling, second floor roof or walls. It was not uncommon to have multiple flooding incidents in a single week that destroyed computers and other electronics, created mold issues and generally made life miserable for the team who continued to work with complete determination and commitment.
In hindsight, it seems almost comical to picture oneself walking into a high-technology R&D facility only to see a dozen streams of brown water pouring through the second story floor onto expensive console, oscilloscopes and other electronics while employees frantically tear open garbage bags to put over everything. Then, with two inches of water covering the floor, the team still set about sitting down and trying their best to continue work.
Flooding wasn’t the only challenge. During construction, power to various buildings would be shut off periodically. Unfortunately, in a 130 year-old complex the routing of all the wiring can become somewhat of a maze. It was not uncommon for our office to have power shut off in the middle of the day and destroying hours or even days of design and simulation work.
To make matters more desperate, the main boiler was shut off for the entire winter, rendering the central steam-based heating system inoperable. At the same time, the insulating front doors of the office were removed as part of the renovation process as well as the office bathroom (which exacerbated the problem with water leaks). Instead of insulating doors, the office was left with a single plywood door that couldn’t be closed completely. During winter, the temperature inside the office rarely rose up to 50 degrees and combined with the flooding problem to create truly miserable conditions. A half dozen space heaters scattered around people’s desks only marginally helped.
A major change was made to the propulsion system during this time. Like many innovations, it began as a change out of necessity. The hydrogen peroxide/RP-1 system would require a silver catalyst bed to decompose the hydrogen peroxide before igniting it with the fuel. After much testing and experimenting, company engineers realized that it would not be practical to manufacture silver screens in either the quantity that would be required or with adequate reliability. An outsourced solution proved impractical due to high cost. It seemed development had reached an impasse.
Faced with the prospect of changing the propellant formulation again and throwing away months of engine design work, Matthew searched for a solution that would retain a hydrogen peroxide based propellant. This propellant was shown to be viable in firings of a lab environment 100-pound thrust engine.
The challenge we now faced became one of taking an experimental propellant that had never been outside of a research environment and creating the first commercial launch vehicle propulsion system to utilize it. With the new propellant selection made, work was able to continue without interruption or losing any of the engineering work that had been accomplished to date.
The engine hardware was delivered by the end of April. We didn’t anticipate a three month lead time for the chamber and nozzle assembly, which was the result of a backlog of clients at the vendor. The company also didn’t expect that the injector – a pintle design – would not fit in its manifold housing. This potentially serious problem was resolved by K-H Machine Works in Union City who had been brought in to perform heavy machine and welding work.
The team again faced external challenges in the spring when a tornado briefly touched down in the city and moved squarely through the Silk Mill complex. The tornado, while relatively weak by Midwestern standards, blew out many windows and tore the roofs and parts of roofs from most of the buildings. This only caused the hardships created from the ongoing building renovations to amplify to intolerable conditions. After another series of floods and lack of support or assistance from building management and following the threat of legal action, management and the building contractor met with us and efforts to resolve outstanding issues were finally undertaken.
As part of the “peace process”, a new bathroom was built in the office, secure doors installed and wiring rerouted to eliminate power outages. Finally, it seemed the company would be able to focus solely on technical progress and not disaster remediation.
Late April through May of 2018 proved to be one of the most productive periods in the year. First, we made two public presentations in New York City. The first provided an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s novel propellant publicly for the first time. The second event was a “pitch” to a panel of venture capitalists and public audience at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in the space shuttle Enterprise pavilion. The most positive outcome of this event was the eventual hiring of additional engineers.
The arrival of summer 2018 brought several new people onboard the team. Two new college interns came to the team as summer interns and proved to be critically valuable in the ongoing effort to assemble the mobile test stand, composite filament winder and rotary evaporator (used to concentrate hydrogen peroxide up to 95%). We hired an additional engineer and two other of our founding team relocated to the area.
On November 8, we successfully conducted a demonstration test fire of the flight-scale storable, non-toxic and hypergolic propulsion system for the first time. Notably, the engine ran smoothly with steady combustion for the entire burn, demonstrating the system’s performance and stability even in off-nominal conditions. Just as importantly, no contingency cleanup of propellants, contaminants or hazardous chemicals was required. Post-test cleanup operations consisted solely of washing down the mobile test stand with water, disconnecting equipment and packing for shipment back to the company’s Union City facilities.
We hoped that completing the propulsion system R&D phase would position us to move forward with final design work. Unfortunately, a few days later, we were informed that the decision had been made to cease all operations and close the business. A week later was the final day of employment for all of us.
The past couple years have been an interesting journey, to say the least. We all took on huge risks with such optimism and hope. We didn’t bet on failure although it’s always possible with a new business. I put everything I had into it and never expected anyone else to take on more risk than I was willing to bear. That’s an important aspect of loyalty and I believed in the people and supported them however I could. Sadly, that has come back to hurt my well-being more than I’ve experienced in my life before. I hope to be working again in maybe a month, but as of now, I am in debt too much to work myself out of quickly and my savings, what I could save, have been used for bills while I’ve been job hunting.
All I need is to cover those debts and have enough to pay bills for a month or so. I wholeheartedly believe I’ll be back on the right track, but right now it’s impossible to get there unless I have some help. I would be forever grateful for whatever assistance you could provid
Two and a half years ago, I helped start a business with a group of very smart young friends. Most of the original team were college students and they recruited me because I’m older with more experience. We successfully raised seed funding and were able to lease an office and hire additional employees and interns. As one of the founders, I invested heavily in the company and them. I believed that the founding team in a business should be the most committed to its success and invest in it more than they receive in its early stage. I moved across country to support the business and even took a reduction in my pay. All the while, I invested much of what I owned into it. Unfortunately, in the end, we were not successful and that has left me with mounting bills and debts as I look for a new job.
We made great progress building the company during 2017 and 2018. We raised funds, closed some sales and made presentations around the country. Sadly, we were unable to generate enough sales soon enough and ran out of funds last November. The saddest day of my life was having to tell the team working under me that the decision was made to cease operations. The people we hired were the best and most loyal people I’ve ever worked with and so it was heartbreaking.
However, I invested more than most in the company, both in terms of money and some of my own personal items that we used to help the business. I was not paid in order for me to enrich myself off the business. The goal was to make the business a success and then for everyone to do well from it. That’s normal in the startup world. Investors don’t fund a new business just so the owners will take the money and run. They invest in order to create a successful enterprise and only then should the founders be rewarded. In fact, I put most of my salary – other than personal bills – back into the company. I had hoped that we would reach that point, but we did not. When everyone was let go, we weren’t able to cash out unused vacation time or other benefits. Everyone was essentially left with whatever they’d saved up until that time. Because of the sacrifice I made for the team and the risk I took on to support them, when we were all let go, I wasn’t reimbursed. In fact, I was not compensated for the value of my investment and my shares were forfeited.
That left me with just what I had in the bank. I’ve used that to pay bills while searching for a new job. It’s been very difficult. Trying to find work during the Thanksgiving to New Year holidays was fruitless since few companies hire during that time of year. Still, I am actively searching and not giving up. The hardest part is that my personal savings is used up. I’ve already had to take a family loan. I never anticipated it would take so long to find work and unemployment insurance is never enough. I have put up my Xterra for sale hoping that might help a bit and I am putting more possessions online for sale. I’m trying to help myself, but it’s just not enough. That’s why I am here asking for your help so I can cross this bridge.
I don’t want to just ask for donations. It’s important to know the story of how I got to this place.
Our team had its genesis in early 2016 when the company’s original founders started informally discussing the possibility of building a small satellite. Over the following months, the idea coalesced into a new company. In June of that year, everyone met in Manhattan for several days of discussions and a small rocket and weather balloon launch. This first group of people, including me, would form the core of the company for the next year.
In February 2017, the company was reorganized and incorporated in order to be better positioned for outside investment, which became a central effort of the founders through the summer. Work on the business plan, pitch deck, financial projections and project plans occupied the team alongside preliminary design work
We completed negotiations for our Seed funding at the end of August 2017 and operations began to ramp up rapidly the next month. One of the first priorities was to hire a dedicated full-time propulsion system lead engineer to address the core focus of R&D efforts. He began working for us in October and under his technical leadership the company had a series of discussions that resulted in the decision to select a hydrogen peroxide and RP-1/kerosene based propellant for primary launch vehicle propulsion.
November was a period of rapid change. An immediate need to consolidate staff, located across the United States, resulted in relocating to Union City, NJ in order to work at the company’s primary office. This meant that most personnel were now located in the northeast U.S. and better able to collaborate, with other employees traveling to work on occasion. Concurrent with staff relocation, spending increased in order to complete outfitting the Union City facility with tooling, equipment, computers and other office items necessary to proceed with development of the common propulsion system.
Many startups in their early rapid growth stage experience challenges and we were no different. During the winter and early spring, many external factors made technical progress challenging and inhibited smooth operations. The historic Silk Mill building complex housing the company’s offices was, and continues to be, under complete renovation. Flooding was a repeated problem during demolition and rebuilding activities. Beginning in December and lasting through the winter, the offices were repeatedly flooded in up to several inches of water from leaks in the ceiling, second floor roof or walls. It was not uncommon to have multiple flooding incidents in a single week that destroyed computers and other electronics, created mold issues and generally made life miserable for the team who continued to work with complete determination and commitment.
In hindsight, it seems almost comical to picture oneself walking into a high-technology R&D facility only to see a dozen streams of brown water pouring through the second story floor onto expensive console, oscilloscopes and other electronics while employees frantically tear open garbage bags to put over everything. Then, with two inches of water covering the floor, the team still set about sitting down and trying their best to continue work.
Flooding wasn’t the only challenge. During construction, power to various buildings would be shut off periodically. Unfortunately, in a 130 year-old complex the routing of all the wiring can become somewhat of a maze. It was not uncommon for our office to have power shut off in the middle of the day and destroying hours or even days of design and simulation work.
To make matters more desperate, the main boiler was shut off for the entire winter, rendering the central steam-based heating system inoperable. At the same time, the insulating front doors of the office were removed as part of the renovation process as well as the office bathroom (which exacerbated the problem with water leaks). Instead of insulating doors, the office was left with a single plywood door that couldn’t be closed completely. During winter, the temperature inside the office rarely rose up to 50 degrees and combined with the flooding problem to create truly miserable conditions. A half dozen space heaters scattered around people’s desks only marginally helped.
A major change was made to the propulsion system during this time. Like many innovations, it began as a change out of necessity. The hydrogen peroxide/RP-1 system would require a silver catalyst bed to decompose the hydrogen peroxide before igniting it with the fuel. After much testing and experimenting, company engineers realized that it would not be practical to manufacture silver screens in either the quantity that would be required or with adequate reliability. An outsourced solution proved impractical due to high cost. It seemed development had reached an impasse.
Faced with the prospect of changing the propellant formulation again and throwing away months of engine design work, Matthew searched for a solution that would retain a hydrogen peroxide based propellant. This propellant was shown to be viable in firings of a lab environment 100-pound thrust engine.
The challenge we now faced became one of taking an experimental propellant that had never been outside of a research environment and creating the first commercial launch vehicle propulsion system to utilize it. With the new propellant selection made, work was able to continue without interruption or losing any of the engineering work that had been accomplished to date.
The engine hardware was delivered by the end of April. We didn’t anticipate a three month lead time for the chamber and nozzle assembly, which was the result of a backlog of clients at the vendor. The company also didn’t expect that the injector – a pintle design – would not fit in its manifold housing. This potentially serious problem was resolved by K-H Machine Works in Union City who had been brought in to perform heavy machine and welding work.
The team again faced external challenges in the spring when a tornado briefly touched down in the city and moved squarely through the Silk Mill complex. The tornado, while relatively weak by Midwestern standards, blew out many windows and tore the roofs and parts of roofs from most of the buildings. This only caused the hardships created from the ongoing building renovations to amplify to intolerable conditions. After another series of floods and lack of support or assistance from building management and following the threat of legal action, management and the building contractor met with us and efforts to resolve outstanding issues were finally undertaken.
As part of the “peace process”, a new bathroom was built in the office, secure doors installed and wiring rerouted to eliminate power outages. Finally, it seemed the company would be able to focus solely on technical progress and not disaster remediation.
Late April through May of 2018 proved to be one of the most productive periods in the year. First, we made two public presentations in New York City. The first provided an opportunity to demonstrate the company’s novel propellant publicly for the first time. The second event was a “pitch” to a panel of venture capitalists and public audience at the Intrepid Air and Space Museum in the space shuttle Enterprise pavilion. The most positive outcome of this event was the eventual hiring of additional engineers.
The arrival of summer 2018 brought several new people onboard the team. Two new college interns came to the team as summer interns and proved to be critically valuable in the ongoing effort to assemble the mobile test stand, composite filament winder and rotary evaporator (used to concentrate hydrogen peroxide up to 95%). We hired an additional engineer and two other of our founding team relocated to the area.
On November 8, we successfully conducted a demonstration test fire of the flight-scale storable, non-toxic and hypergolic propulsion system for the first time. Notably, the engine ran smoothly with steady combustion for the entire burn, demonstrating the system’s performance and stability even in off-nominal conditions. Just as importantly, no contingency cleanup of propellants, contaminants or hazardous chemicals was required. Post-test cleanup operations consisted solely of washing down the mobile test stand with water, disconnecting equipment and packing for shipment back to the company’s Union City facilities.
We hoped that completing the propulsion system R&D phase would position us to move forward with final design work. Unfortunately, a few days later, we were informed that the decision had been made to cease all operations and close the business. A week later was the final day of employment for all of us.
The past couple years have been an interesting journey, to say the least. We all took on huge risks with such optimism and hope. We didn’t bet on failure although it’s always possible with a new business. I put everything I had into it and never expected anyone else to take on more risk than I was willing to bear. That’s an important aspect of loyalty and I believed in the people and supported them however I could. Sadly, that has come back to hurt my well-being more than I’ve experienced in my life before. I hope to be working again in maybe a month, but as of now, I am in debt too much to work myself out of quickly and my savings, what I could save, have been used for bills while I’ve been job hunting.
All I need is to cover those debts and have enough to pay bills for a month or so. I wholeheartedly believe I’ll be back on the right track, but right now it’s impossible to get there unless I have some help. I would be forever grateful for whatever assistance you could provid
Organizer
Matthew Travis
Organizer
Union City, NJ