What do you call a startup that raises a Series C round, then immediately kills itself?
Deer tick, or Ixodes scapularis, feeds only 3–4 times during its entire life. At each stage, larva (Series A), nymph (Series B), and adult (Series C), the deer tick must eat a blood meal in order to molt and proceed to the next stage. As adults, the male and female ticks mate after their final blood meal, and dies soon afterwards. Gross, right?
Let’s meet two, a male and a female Deer ticks from this year.
ScaleFactor, a startup funded by Bessemer Venture Partners and Coatue Management, announced that it was shutting down on June 23, 2020. This was only 10 months after they raised a $60M Series C led by Coatue.
Founded by Kurt Rathmann (a male and self-anointed Chief Everything Officer), ScaleFactor was a hot fintech company providing automated bookkeeping and payroll services for small and medium sized businesses. Rathmann claimed that the company was a victim of the Great Pandemic. Forbes reported, however, that it was in trouble even before that. In February, before the lockdowns…
