August 20, 2025· 47 min

This Is What Happens When a Startup Dies

Orality
Model
50%

Speaker Breakdown

HostJoe Weisenthal(1,906 words)
M:29%
HostTracy Alloway(6,186 words)
M:28%
GuestDavid Johnson(1,182 words)
M:29%

Oral Indicators

Agonistic24%
basically, totally, certainly
Engagement78%
you, our, your
Memory Aids100%
listen, now, so
Repetition100%
they (84x), company (70x), your (63x)
Parallelism57%
So why would I pay for stuff I..., And I'm Tracy Alloway...., But I don't think that's most ...
Sound Patterns65%
71 question(s), alliteration: "markets move", alliteration: "barclays brief"
Formulaic Phrases4%
you know what, i mean

Literate Indicators

Hedging7%
could, maybe, probably
Passive Voice7%
is called, be repurposed, is when
Abstract Nouns16%
investment, information, volatility
Subordination9%
because, while, until
Sentence Length29%
Avg: 12.2 words/sentence
Word Complexity48%
investment, analyze, anticipate
Academic Markers0%
Impersonal Style22%
857 personal pronouns found
Descriptive Style68%
monthly, carefully, exactly

Description

You always hear about startup exits. Big acquisitions. Big IPOs. But of course this isn’t the fate for most new ventures. Many of them die outright, without any kind of “exit” at all for shareholders. So how do you wind down a company, and sell off the scraps? How do you actually pull the plug? David Johnson of Resolution Financial Advisors specializes in exactly that. Because the formal bankruptcy process is very expensive, many companies look for some way to salvage value by doing an asset fire sale. David tells us how the process works, and also goes through a bunch of fun examples of odd transactions, such as the time he had to find a buyer for some actual human skulls that were in the office of a dying startup. Only Bloomberg.com subscribers can get the Odd Lots newsletter in their inbox — now delivered every weekday — plus unlimited access to the site and app. Subscribe at bloomberg.com/subscriptions/oddlots See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.