We Got Our Money Back
At 12:34:28 PM this afternoon George sent us all a message via Skype:
good news fuckers, time to party - reopened 40k line
What ensued in our chat room was an onslaught of remarks that were an equal mix of extreme joy and extreme slandering of Bank of America and everyone who works there.
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier in my life. It was only about 28 hours since this fiasco began yesterday, but losing an important $40k line of credit sent my mind into a tailspin:
- How would we account for the missing money?
- Would we still move in to the warehouse that we’ve tentatively agreed to (still no lease….waiting for that too)?
- If we did move in, but couldn’t afford product expansion, SHOULD we move in?
- Should we take no salary for a while to raise the money? Would that create a divide among the partners. What if someone couldn’t take it and wanted to quit?
- Should we try to get a round of Angel/VC funding, and give up some control. And if so, how much time would we have to spend (i.e. waste) raising money.
- At what point do we call our lawyer? Should we try to sue Bank of America if they won’t return our calls?
- Could this be one of those unfortunate events that sets a company back for 6 months…or maybe even years.
- Were we EVER going to be able to make the next jump as a company that we need to make by moving out and expanding?
And that’s just the stuff I can shoot off the top of my head right now 
The official reasoning from Bank of America was that it was a computer glitch that shut our account down. OK, fine, whatever. I’m sure it happens, but you couldn’t have re-instated it YESTERDAY when we were harassing you on the phone all day? What if this lasted through the weekend? Would they have even called us if we didn’t pester them?
Regardless, we’re back on track after a really, really scary day.
I want to make sure I thank those who expressed their concern via email and comments, and especially thank that one person who emailed me flat out offering us a cash loan that would be wired to us same day (you know who you are). This was a pretty big deal for us, and it’s always nice to have friends who show that they care.
And for all of the stress and anxiety and worrying about the fate of our company: attention Bank of America, and I mean this with all of the deepest sincerity I can muster: SUCK MY BALLS.
(yes, I am a Michigan fan)
On January 21st, 2008 at 3:10 pm
That’s some nice hostility there!
Your bank-pulling-funding dilemma reminds me of Richard Branson’s book Losing My Virginity where he talks about how his bank (repeatedly) pulled his credit lines during crucial opening stages of his airline.
If you have good credit, I’d bet there are a ton of other banks who are itching to have a line open with Pure Adapt. I love Bank Of America, but they’re not the only game in town!
On January 21st, 2008 at 3:42 pm
Haha thanks Nev. Yea I/we were pretty pissed. Everyone has good credit, the problem is we’re trying to get lines of credit under the business (a S-Corp) and we get all sorts of shit because we’ve been around less than 3 years. We have another line with Citizens Bank that will go into play as soon as this years taxes are filed, but until we have a few more years under our belts I think we’ll have to work a little harder. Regardless, with this settled + Citizens line we shouldn’t need $$ for a while.
Btw - I keep meaning to read ‘Losing My Virginity’…I’ve heard great things, and he’s one of the entrepreneurs I actually want to listen to.