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Startup & Flop

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BostonCurtis

Junior Member
About 6 months ago I started a new business. One of the parts of my business requires the use of an outside vendor. Without this vendor I had no business. I live in Mass, but this vendor lives in NYC. He owns no stock in my start up & was never paid for his help. It was made clear to this vendor that he would get $3,000.00, half up front and half at the event for his help. As the months went on we where unable to find a venue to host our first event. Just about this time he started to push and push for a contract. The one he sent me stated he would get paid all upfront. I sent him the contract back stating that he would be paid in full 2 weeks before the event. He never sent this contract back to me. I was never sure we could lock down an investor or a venue so paying him in full would be nuts. He start to push more and more for cash, and then put a deadline on us for Thursday of last week. I told him that I needed a week and I would pay the 3k on the deadline (last Thursday) In truth i was buying time to see if I could lock down the venue. From day one paying him without a venue seemed nuts.
I found out later from his own email to me that he was hard up for cash and he was pushing on me because he needed it. "And right now, I tried everything I can to get 3K into my business account by Thursday so I can honor the promises I made to my clients and vendors. However, since I am traveling till January 19th, I have no way to get that funds into my business account by Thursday." On Monday of that set week before the Thursday deadline I told him I was going to kill the company. I had got word back from 2 investors that it was to much of a risk. The project was dead and I was done. He sent me some VERY mad emails telling me he was going to sue me. I then sent him $250 on that Thursday for the work he had done (all I could afford) I never stated that the money was for his service. I told him it was a gift. I liked the guy and wanted to send him something for his hard work. I was unable to come up with the 3k but if I did i may have paid it.

in return this is what he emailed me today.
" Yes I will sue you just to teach you a lesson that there are many judges in the world that would "recognize" work without any paper agreement."

I guess to sum this up, I sent him a contract and he never sent it back. We NEVER talked about a price for the work he was doing it was understood that he would get paid at the point we locked down an investor or a venue. I lost 6 months of hard work in this company because he set a deadline of payment for the full amount of his service. He has made it clear he is going to sue me. Help me sleep a little better and let me know what I'm entitled to give this man, and if I have any legs to stand on.

I just hope that in this country, a company can't just do research for a service they sell, and expect to get paid in full when a client cancels that service. What he did was try to extort money from me, and now he is trying freak me out with the fear of suing me.

also the company never made it to an LLC, so he would have to sue me individuality. As of today I give up all control of the company to the two girls helping me build this project. This is also the 2nd time in a month that someone has said they are going to sue me. At this point I never want to start a small business again. I didn't want to waste 3k on a bully and I don't want to give him any more money.
 
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