In May, my friend Julie* had an offer from a startup. She knew startup jobs are risky. “Nine out of ten startups fail” – she heard this rule of thumb many times over. Julie did all the research she could. According to reports, the startup raised a significant chunk of money a year earlier. The founder was an experienced banker and went to a prestigious business school.
It all sounded legit to her, and she went on board as an independent contractor. Just three months later, by the end of August, Julie’s workplace had gone bust. She and another on the team learned – by email – that the company was out of funds and they wouldn’t be compensated for their previous month’s work. (Update: We earlier said “others on the team” learned by email. We’ve corrected it to reflect that others on the team may have been told in person. We regret the error.)
This is the nightmare the team of Indonesian restaurant review site Abraresto went through. Team members were angry and felt they hadn’t been communicated with openly in the weeks leading up to the closure.
On Sunday, October 4, Abraresto founder and CEO Ankur Mehrotra issued a statement confirming the shutdown of Abraresto, along with its Singaporean parent company, Abratable.
Abraresto was a site that lets users rate and review restaurants in Indonesia. It also awards them perks for loyalty. Abratable in Singapore focuses on restaurant bookings. At the time this article was written, both sites were still accessible online with no mention of the company’s closure.
Based on my interviews with reliable sources and industry experts who spoke on the condition of anonymity, several factors led to the firm’s demise, including inexperience on the investor’s side, and too much risk-taking on the founder’s.
The US$1.5 million seed round that wasn’t
The startup’s rocky journey began with the launch of Abratable in Singapore in 2012.
An early warning sign for future employees might have been the apparent lack of long-term commitment for Abratable. In August 2012, Tech in Asia reported on the launch. By 2013, it seems Abratable had discontinued its operations. The last entry on the site’s blog was dated May 2013. Several links, including the “about” page, were inactive.
Term sheet trouble
A team made up of contractors
No future for food content startups?
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