Founders Everywhere: Brendan Mahony
Founders Everywhere: Brendan Mahony
Brendan Mahony is the founder and CEO of Sunset, a company that helps VC-backed startups wind down.
Welcome to Founders Everywhere, where we highlight the incredible people behind the companies we’ve backed at Everywhere Ventures, a global pre-seed fund supported by a community of 500 founders and operators.
Most startups fail—it’s simply the nature of the game. It’s a part of innovation, where bold ideas meet the test of reality. It provides an opportunity to pivot, learn, grow and head into the next season with sharper focus and better preparation. But why does it take 10 minutes to incorporate and 10 months to shut down? The process is filled with emotional and logistical challenges that make it a difficult and overwhelming journey for founders. Sunset is a startup that handles the end-to-end dissolution process, including all the legal, tax, and operational burdens that are involved when winding-down a company. They help avoid penalties and reduce liabilities– allowing founders and investors to move onto what’s next.
Brendan Mahony, founder and CEO, is a YC Alum and started two other companies in the past. One was successfully acquired, while the other had to shut down. It was during that experience he learned firsthand the difficulties of winding down a venture-backed startup. He brings valuable insights and expertise to his work, empowering entrepreneurs to navigate the complexities of the situation with a smooth transition. He shares more about his journey and his passion for helping founders sunset their companies and prepare for what's on the horizon.
Why Sunset and why now?
After going through Y Combinator and experiencing the dissolution of my second startup, I realized how difficult it was to wind down a company. It was a terrible process, and after receiving multiple texts from other founders asking for advice on how to handle dissolutions, I saw that this was a common problem. That’s when I decided to create Sunset to make this process easier.
What's Sunset’s North Star?
Our North Star is to help founders during some of their toughest times - when they are having to shut down their company. These founders have often tirelessly worked on these companies for years and the last thing they want to do at the end is deal with all the legal, tax, and operational burdens to unwind it all. Because of this, our aim is to take as much of this off their plates while making sure founders and their boards are protected by having lawyers and tax advisors involved throughout the entire process. Although we automate many aspects - we always want to maintain a human component, ensuring clients get proper advice without having to manage it all themselves.
What’s on the horizon for Sunset?
In the short term, we’re focused on automating more of the process so our team can concentrate on higher-level tasks. Our goal is to take even more off founders’ plates by helping them deal with creditors, manage assets, handle team layoffs, severance packages, and address other overarching problems of the shutdown process.
Tell us about Sunset’s logo.
Especially when we were first starting, I wanted to both differentiate ourselves from typical tech startups, while also conveying trust to our users. I started researching “trusted” institutions like banks and luxury brands - and thought that a horse could help us accomplish those goals. I also randomly was on the JV Polo team in College so personally, love a horse :)
What drives you as a founder?
I’ve always been driven by creation. I was a fine arts and business major in college and I see entrepreneurship as the ultimate form of creation - taking absolutely nothing and making it into something that people genuinely want or need. Specifically with Sunset though, what drives me is knowing that we’re actually helping people in a time of need. When I went through this, I felt incredibly alone, scared, and embarrassed. I want to make sure other founders don’t need to go through that.
Any favorite podcasts?
I enjoy listening to Bryce Robert’s Indie podcast because of its unique guests who have had billion-dollar exits or built companies with significant revenue without raising much capital. I also listen to classics like 20VC and My First Million.
Fun fact:
In college I was on the polo team, water logging team, and hosted a radio show called Nick & Brendan’s Infinite Playlist.
Listen to Beth Lopez with Mark Jackson on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Besolo, Be Happy. Now on Apple & Spotify and check out to all our past episodes here!
Listen to Doug Bemis with Gabriela Isturiz on the Venture Everywhere podcast: Smart Syntracts. Now on Apple & Spotify and check out to all our past episodes here!
