Corporate & Securities Law

How to Blow $340MM on Blow

By Ryan Roberts

I suspect more of these “startup blows millions” stories will be surfacing in the coming months, but a story in today’s SF Chronicle might be hard to top. “How ‘Visionary’ Raised - and Lost - a Fortune” details how John P. Rogers, founder of Pay By Touch(a biometric authentication technology company), went through $340MM of high-profile investor cash.

Pay By Touch is now bankrupt and investors contend in multiple lawsuits that the startup burned cash at a rate of $8 million per month and Rogers’ frequent partying and constant drug abuse impaired his business judgment. Rogers’ suspected drug use apparently led to a hotel-room “intervention” in a Vegas hotel room.

Read the entire story here.

If a VC firm asks to your to pee in a cup before your pitch, you can thank Mr. Rogers.

(On a personal note, I’m glad to see Lance Williams found the time to write a story on someone other than Barry Bonds.)

Full post as published by The Startup Lawyer on December 07, 2008 (boomark / email).