> Not much help for this time around, but if you're working with fly-by-night outfits, it's a must.
Yeah, I guess in our community we don't think of funded startups as "fly-by-night" outfits, even though any bank or mainstream institution would absolutely think of them as such. I guess I had a little more confidence in the kind of person that has convinced well-known investors to give them money.
FWIW I've had other founders treat me very well in going-under situations, so I know it's not everybody.
That's a great lesson - thanks. I've never heard of or considered such a thing, but that's a great way to assure payment without raising prices.
EDIT: I think people aren't giving you enough credit here. Every contract is a negotiation - this clause is just another weapon I can include in my starting offer on a new contract. If people say hey, we won't agree to this provision, I can now say "OK, no problem, my rates just went up 10%."
I've thought about that a lot - what do I take away from this?
I'm not sure there's anything I really could have done. I was working on 30 day terms (quite common), and I'd worked for them with quite prompt payment for over a year. I probably had ~12-15 paid invoices from them for similar amounts that were paid within 7-14 days of issue.
I stopped working for them upon the issuance of the second invoice in question - so I had two invoices outstanding at that point, 1 that was 15 days past issue (but not contractually due) and 1 just issued.
Do people in multi-invoice contracts really stop work until they have proof of remittance? I've never heard of such a thing - that sounds crazy to me.