Penny was on giggling like a school girl when she came to Silicon Valley. She accepted a job as Marketing Director for a startup in the Bay Area. Penny giggled with particular gusto when she accepted a salary of $135k  with a $4 million marketing budget.

But then the shady shyte started happening.  Penny knew things were not right when her paycheck was late for the 3rd time. Sure, she started to see red flags before. Red flags such as:

• Nobody at the company could explain what their product did
• 50% of the company was H1-B visas,
•  Penny’s insubordinate employees

But her ultimate “WTF?” moment was when she discovered that several  staff had lent the CEO yuuuge sums of  cash ($50k+) from their personal savings. 

The CEO’s excuse?  He had millions of dollars tied up by the IRS. The issue would be resolved, he promised.

But here’s what made Penny regret the day she landed in Silicon Valley: The employees were getting restless and demanded their money NOW. So the CEO sent the company what he claimed were “screenshots” of wire transfer receipts for the money he owed his team.

The screenshots were poorly made photoshopped fakes. 

So now Penny is crying like a baby. 

So how do you protect yourself from a scammy startup situation? 

 1.Don’t look for shortcuts. 

Penny was attracted to a high salary and budget.  But she should have grilled the CEO on the product roadmap, market, sales figures, etc. before accepting the job. 

 2. Don’t take advantage of people.  

The company’s CEO is an example of what not to do. You might fool investors in the short term but all debts fall due eventually. You think anybody wants to do business with this guy in the future? 

Nope.

 If you have a co-founder who thinks employees only deserve to get paid when the startup starts generating revenue–run fast, baby. 

3. Don’t lie to yourself. 

 If a deal seems too good to be true–red flag. 

If a business partner is consistently not fulfilling their promises–red flag. It doesn’t matter how charismatic they are. Just walk away.

The best and most risk-free way to start a successful startup isn’t to blow smoke in the face of investors and employees.

The best way is to create and follow a system to attract–and serve–buyers with consistency. It’s not sexy but it works.

You’ll see something from me soon to help you with that.

P.S. Want to save a ton of time and make a lot of money? Then get my Business Baroque system for FREE and turn your ideas into cash-generating assets. Get it here: https://powerpersuasion.net/