Ask HN: Deadbeat Client – Owes us 25k – What are my options?
My random advice from the internet, is to make your decisions premised on never seeing the money.<p>1. The COO did not treat paying you as a priority.<p>2. The COO normalized non-payment by stating they had not been paid.<p>3. The company is not even offering pennies on the dollar.<p>4. The investor has pulled out.<p>Roughly, your options come down to luck.<p>1. Maybe the company gets money <i>and</i> decides to pay you and everyone else for work done instead of using the money to grow the company or pay themselves.<p>2. Maybe the company gets money and you and everyone else who they owe money can sue them and win and the money spent on attorneys turns out to be well spent.<p>3. Maybe the company files bankruptcy and you pay an attorney to represent you and their is a pile of money so large that even unsecured creditors get paid.<p>4. Maybe you hire an attorney and successfully litigate a claim and the company has no money.<p>5. The most likely situation is that the company goes bankruptcy and you never see money no matter what you do. It&#x27;s the one to plan for.<p>6. Just move on and find paying work and consider requiring a retainer or other method of billing where non-payment does not hurt so badly.<p>Good luck.