A drag-along provision allows the investor to force the other shareholders to participate in the sale of the company.

Now it appears that Russ also obtained a “drag-along” provision and a liquidation preference.

Russ also obtained protective provisions and restrictions, one of which let Laurie block Erlich’s sale of his shares to Russ so that she could acquire them at a rock-bottom price. He got two of Pied Piper’s five board seats, so that when Laurie and Raviga bought Russ out, Raviga gained control of Pied Piper’s board. For anyone who missed most of the last two seasons, Russ Hanneman came along last time Pied Piper was desperate for money, and in exchange for his pledge of a $5 million investment, he negotiated “onerous” terms. Because of Raviga’s liquidation preference all the money goes to Raviga, and Pied Piper ends up back at the beginning: in Erlich’s Hacker Hostel with no money and Richard’s CEO status and equity in jeopardy, but with a really promising new technology about to take the world by storm.Īnd it looks like we have that stupid investment deal with Russ Hanneman to blame again! It’s the reason Richard had to sell his stake in Pied Piper and the reason Raviga walked away with all the money. Shockingly, the highest bidder turns out to be Bachmanity-revitalized with $1 million from selling the Code/Rag blog to Hooli-Big Head and Erlich out-bid Gavin Belson by one dollar. The same goes for Laurie who forces the sale of all of Pied Piper, including Richard’s stake, “to the highest bidder” when she finds out about the fake uptick. He reveals the uptick was fake and tries to pitch Dinesh’s awesome (and incredibly popular) video chat app instead, but the VC’s want none of it. But Richard’s moral compass prevents him from carrying through on the fraud. Unfortunately, in the meantime, Erlich used the uptick to set off a wave of VC “FOMO” (fear of missing out), that culminates in an offer of $6 million in Series B funding. First, Jared’s ploy to buy fake users comes to an inglorious end: the team discovers their “uptick” in daily active users is the product of a Bangladeshi click farm not the product gaining traction. (But at least it’s a promising place to start!)

If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!” Because, at the end of Season 3 Pied Piper is in pretty much the same place as at the end of Season 2, and about to begin at the beginning all over again. Summarizing the week Jared writes, “Lewis Carroll famously said, ‘Begin at the beginning, go on to the end, and then stop.’ But that is hard advice to follow when one’s head is spinning…” It would have been just as apt if Jared had added that “here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.

Silicon valley season 3