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The original was posted on /r/tifu by /u/finanancesareamess on 2023-07-16 14:53:10.

Using a throwaway.

So…Sadly one of my parents passed from Covid right at the beginning of the pandemic. I inherited a mid 6 figure amount and decided to start a company with it. So far so good. Hired a consultant to help me with the industry specifics.

I hired over 20 freelancers, all of whom have had steady work to this day. Have 1 FT employee who is paid from the very small profits. During this period, no fewer than 3 vendors took advantage of me and did not deliver product. They stayed right inside the letter of the contract, I lost over 80k due to this and my attorney says it’s not worth chasing.

I spent another 100k+ on marketing, most of which had little to no ROI. A lot of over promising and underdelivering. All of my income goes right back into it, my life partner does well, so I (very luckily)have zero personal overhead.

So this first 2 quarters sales have tanked to the point where I can’t pay my FT employee and can’t produce any product.

At this point I don’t have a solution. The product relies on WOM and social media mostly. TV, radio, print, digital marketing campaigns have mostly failed. Product is not new, it’s regularly sold by large companies and independent entrepreneurs. No, it’s not MLM. I don’t want to ID too much, need to stay anonymous.

My age factors highly into this fuckup, as I don’t have 20-30 years to dig out of this hole. Luckily I have no family left so I don’t have to deal with the shame.

TLDR; fucked up starting a new company with family money, lost everything. Crippling depression (under treatment) ensues.