Chris Hughes's Startup Jumo ‘Acquired’ for $0 and a Graceful Exit (opens in new tab)

The submitter is a betabeat shill, so I'm guessing the phrase, "maximum click juice," should provide enough sensemaking points.

This is incorrect. You can acquire and merge nonprofits just like a real corporation. The difference is that you don't have equity, therefore, if you do want to compensate people (e.g. employees or investors or whoever), you need to do so with cash (e.g. bonuses).

Acquired was the term used in the original Fast Company story that broke the news and the term used by Jumo General Manager Kristen Titus.

As Betabeat wrote on Twitter in response"

"@chrishughes @techmeme @GOOD as we said to you before we published, confirm or deny on the record, and we're happy to report it. You can't decline to comment beforehand, then refuse to go on record after, then point fingers. And we included the statement from your GM in the piece."

If Jumo had a $$$ figure they were proud of, they would share it. But the first comment captures it best. If Hughes understand that failure is a badge of honor in the tech world, and came clean before this news broke, it would be a non-story, and people would respect him for trying to build such a noble start-up.

I don't think there is a facade in this case. Usually never that simple.

According to the article, there is no "fruits of $3.5 million", no real IP, no nothing.

16 people, loaded costs of 100-200k each, plus facilities, legal, contractors, etc. A lot of non-profits have high costs of fundraising, too.

There's an argument that non-profit employees should take lower than market salaries to support the cause, but also there's an argument that they need above-market compensation since there's no equity or potential for an exit.

(I'd take a lower than market salary for a non-profit I really believed in, if I could, but it's not necessarily the case that the best designer or engineer for a non-profit is necessarily going to be willing or able to do so.)