AI-first wind-downs  ·  Menlo Park, CA  ·  A Trademarkia Company

When the runway ends,
exit with dignity.

Some companies don't make the next round. We help them land — using AI built on Trademarkia's network of 125,000+ companies to match venture-backed startups with Fortune 500 acquirers, return capital to investors, and free founders to build the next thing.

The AI-first alternative to legacy assignees. Our buyer-graph engine replaces the manual rolodex; a live creditor portal replaces quarterly PDFs; capped, contingency-aligned fees replace the standard 12% transaction bonus and 24-month tail. Confidential, modern Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors and seven adjacent wind-down services.

Confidential Intake See the AI Engine
12% → 6% Standard transaction bonus vs. our pre-pack rate Lower across every fee structure.
60 min to AI-modeled recovery scenario from intake
~$1B in IP value our team has authored, sold, or enforced via Trademarkia & PatentVC.
Recognized as the gold standard for ABCs in the age of AI 7 wind-down service lines Confidential first calls — before the board vote Transparent, capped, and contingency-aligned fees AI buyer-matching · Document Mill · Creditor Portal From the team behind Trademarkia & PatentVC Recognized as the gold standard for ABCs in the age of AI 7 wind-down service lines Confidential first calls — before the board vote Transparent, capped, and contingency-aligned fees AI buyer-matching · Document Mill · Creditor Portal From the team behind Trademarkia & PatentVC
Est. MMXXVI

Not every ending is a failure.
Some are simply the right next thing.

A startup that runs out of runway still has value left — patents that mean something to a strategic, a team that means something to an acqui-hirer, a brand that means something on a balance sheet. The job at the end isn't to apologize. It's to make sure that value reaches the people who funded it, the people who built it, and the people who will carry it forward.

§ 01 — The AI Engine

An assignee
that thinks.

The legacy practice runs the same playbook today that it ran in 1995: a rolodex of corporate-development contacts, paper documents, and quarterly PDF statements.

We rebuilt that playbook on AI infrastructure — not because the technology is novel, but because the process needed it. Six AI systems, trained on Trademarkia's portfolio of 125,000+ IP filings and a decade of corporate-development pattern data, run inside every Graveyard.vc engagement.

i.
Triage AI

From "I think we should talk" to a recovery scenario in one hour.

Your runway, debt stack, cap table, IP, and likely-buyer universe go in. A modeled recovery range comes out — before our first call ends. You walk in unsure. You walk out with a number.

Legacy: 4–6 weeks of consultations and email threads before a structured estimate.

ii.
The Buyer Graph

We don't call 500 people. We call the 30 who can close.

Eight years of acqui-hire and patent-transfer pattern data, mapped to corporate-development contacts, M&A history, and current acquisition appetite. Targeted outreach in days, not weeks.

Legacy: Sequential rolodex outreach, manual follow-up, weeks per buyer cycle.

iii.
Valuation Engine

What your IP is actually worth — before you go to market.

Trained on Trademarkia's 125,000+ trademark portfolio, USPTO transaction data, and comparable IP sales. We anchor on real numbers, not the seller's wishes or a buyer's lowball.

Legacy: Asset value is a single line item on a residual-asset spreadsheet.

iv.
Document Mill

All eight ABC documents drafted in hours.

General Assignment, Board Resolution, Stockholder Consent, Interested Party Declaration, Patent Assignment, Trademark Assignment, 401(k) trustee appointment, Compensation Letter — all AI-drafted to your facts, attorney-reviewed before execution.

Legacy: Manual templates, days to weeks of back-and-forth per document.

v.
Creditor Portal

A live ledger, not a quarterly PDF.

Creditors submit Proofs of Claim through a portal. AI verifies against books and records. Statutory priority distribution is modeled live. Every dollar in, every dollar out, on a single auditable ledger.

Legacy: Quarterly statements. PDFs. Phone calls.

vi.
Compliance Engine

California, Delaware, or Texas — handled programmatically.

ABC law differs meaningfully by state: court oversight, bond requirements, preference recovery, appraisal duties, time limits. We model the variation programmatically so the wind-down is defensible in every jurisdiction it touches.

Legacy: Primarily California-focused practice, manual handling for out-of-state matters.

Seven service lines.
One quiet practice.

Most insolvent venture-backed companies don't actually need a Chapter 7. They need someone with the discipline to structure the right wind-down for their facts. We offer seven adjacent service lines so the engagement matches the situation — not the other way around.

I.

Assignments for the Benefit of Creditors

Our flagship practice. The Gold Standard for ABCs in the age of AI — the modern alternative to legacy assignees for venture-backed companies.

Read more II.

Financial Advisors

Pre-wind-down strategy, recovery modeling, cap-table scenario analysis, and creditor negotiation support — for boards that want options before they need them.

Read more III.

Liquidating Trust Agents

Post-bankruptcy and post-merger trust administration — managing residual assets, claims, and distributions on a multi-year horizon.

Read more IV.

Receiverships

State and federal court-appointed receivers for distressed companies, foreclosure proceedings, and contentious shareholder situations.

Read more V.

Article 9 Foreclosures

UCC Article 9 secured-creditor sales — the fastest available path to clean title for senior lenders ready to monetize collateral.

Read more VI.

Managed Liquidations

Operating wind-downs that keep the lights on long enough to maximize value — service contracts honored, customers transitioned, IP sold as a going concern.

Read more VII.

IP Monetization

Patent and trademark sales, licensing structures, and enforcement — including for healthy companies that simply have unused IP on their balance sheet.

Read more —

Not sure which one?

Tell us where you are. We'll tell you which service line — if any — is the right tool.

Confidential intake

Most boards know
the meeting is coming.

By the time a venture-backed company is down to its last quarter of runway, three things are almost always true: the CEO knows it, the lead investor suspects it, and nobody wants to be the one to say it out loud. The result is usually a chaotic, unflattering wind-down handled by someone whose business model was built thirty years ago. We think Silicon Valley deserves better.

I.

The market is run by one firm.

For three decades, ABC sales for venture-backed companies in Silicon Valley have been dominated by a single legacy assignee. Their term sheets routinely take 12% of every transaction plus a $35K up-front advisory fee. There has been no real alternative.

II.

Founders fear the conversation.

By the time most CEOs reach out, the board meeting is already on the calendar. A confidential first call — weeks before any vote — is the difference between a controlled landing and a crash. We let founders model the outcome before they have to defend it.

III.

VCs lose twice.

Once on the original mark. Again on the wind-down — when the 12% transaction bonus, the $35K up-front, and the 24-month tail collide with liquidation preferences and a $10M check returns $200K instead of the $2M an efficient process would have produced.

IV.

The talent walks blind.

Most of these companies aren't really dying — they're being absorbed. Ten engineers and a working model end up at a strategic within sixty days. But without a structured acqui-hire process, the patents and trademarks that should anchor the deal are left on the table.

§ 02 — Side by Side

Legacy practice was built for 1995.
Graveyard.vc is built for now.

Every line below comes from the standard incumbent term sheet — pulled from real engagement letters, not marketing material.

Legacy PracticeStandard Engagement Letter
Graveyard.vcA Trademarkia Company
Up-front Advisory Fee
$35,000 due on signing, fully earned upon execution of the engagement letter regardless of outcome.
$0–$25,000 depending on engagement type. Often $0 for qualifying ABC engagements.
Transaction Bonus
12% of gross proceeds — applied to IP sales, license fees, and acqui-hire compensation.
6–9% standard. Or contingency-only with no bonus until creditors clear an agreed threshold.
24-Month Tail
The legacy practitioner earns its 12% on any party they contacted for 24 months after termination — even if you fire them.
None. When the engagement ends, our claim ends.
Non-Solicit of Their Staff
$50,000 in liquidated damages per legacy-firm employee hired by Client or any affiliate, for 24 months.
12 months, mutual, no per-head liquidated damages.
Indemnification
Asymmetric — Client indemnifies the legacy assignee and its affiliates for "any losses, claims, damages, liabilities, or actions" related to the engagement.
Mutual and narrow. Each party indemnifies for its own gross negligence or willful misconduct.
Confidentiality of Client
No reciprocal obligation — the legacy practitioner may "express its full opinions" to creditors and third parties as it deems appropriate.
Mutual NDA. We do not disclose your identity, situation, or engagement to anyone without your written consent.
Reporting
Quarterly statements. PDFs. Phone calls.
Live creditor & investor portal. Every dollar in and out, in real time, on a single auditable ledger.
Buyer Outreach
Manual rolodex curated over decades. Sequential.
The Buyer Graph — eight years of corporate-dev pattern data plus the Trademarkia network of 125,000+ clients in 80+ countries.
Document Drafting
Manual templates, days to weeks per document.
The Document Mill — all eight ABC documents AI-drafted to your facts in hours, attorney-reviewed before execution.
State-Law Coverage
Primarily California; manual handling for Delaware and other states.
California, Delaware, and Texas handled programmatically by the Compliance Engine.

Source: standard legacy-assignee engagement letter terms. Graveyard.vc actual published terms. See our sample engagement letter for the full text.

§ 03 — Qualifying Tiers

Three engagement tiers.
We assess. You don't pick.

We don't sell options off a menu. The Triage AI memo assesses the estate — liquidable assets, debt stack, IP, and timeline — and places the engagement in the appropriate tier. The website publishes the framework so boards, founders, and lead investors can see what to expect before the first call. Comparison baseline throughout: the legacy assignee's $35K up-front + 12% transaction bonus + 24-month tail.

Tier I

Compact Engagement

Liquidable estate $100K – $1M

For smaller estates that need predictable cost, a clean process, and quick close — including pre-pack situations where a strategic buyer is identified at intake.

Up-front fee$30,000
Transaction bonus8%
Minimum total fee$35,000
Close target30–45 days
Tailnone

Right-sized for the estate. On a $200K asset sale, total fee is $46K vs the legacy practice's $59K — about 22% lower with no tail.

Tier II

Aligned Engagement

Liquidable estate $200K – $5M

For engagements where fiduciary alignment matters more than fee certainty. We earn nothing until creditors clear the agreed threshold.

Up-front fee$0
Below threshold$0
Above threshold22%
Threshold default75% of modeled recovery
Fee ceiling20% of estate

The board's strongest fiduciary record. We bear the risk; creditors see the alignment in the engagement letter itself.

Tier III

Capital Engagement

Liquidable estate $1M+

For large estates with complex asset bases — diversified IP portfolios, multi-state operations, or contested situations — where the structured marketing process produces the best recovery.

Up-front fee$30,000
Transaction bonus10%
Tailnone
Indemnitymutual

On a $5M sale, total fee is $530K vs the legacy practice's $635K — about 17% lower, with no 24-month tail and mutual indemnification.

Estates under $100K liquidable are not a fit for an ABC structure on the math; we refer those engagements to UCC Article 9 foreclosure or informal wind-down. Tier II is also available on board request for engagements above $1M where fiduciary signaling is the priority.
§ 04 — Sample Letter

Read the full engagement letter before you sign anything.

We publish our standard engagement letter on the open web. You can read every clause we'd ask you to sign — and compare it to the legacy practice's — before our first call. No NDA required to look. No salesperson required to walk you through it.

Read the Sample Letter

Graveyard.vc Engagement Letter

Re: Engagement Terms — General Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors

§ 1. ENGAGEMENT. Graveyard.vc shall serve as Assignee under California Code of Civil Procedure §§ 493.010 et seq...

§ 6. FEES. Client may select among three published fee structures (A, B, or C) as defined in graveyard.vc/pricing...

§ 7. TAIL. For 24 months after termination...   None.

§ 9. INDEMNIFICATION. Mutual. Each Party shall indemnify the other for losses arising solely from such Party's gross negligence or willful misconduct...

§ 10. CONFIDENTIALITY. Mutual. Graveyard.vc shall not disclose Client's identity, situation, or engagement to any third party without Client's prior written consent...

§ 05 — Who We Serve

Three audiences.
One quiet process.

Most engagements come to us through one of three channels: founders ready to be proactive, VC firms with a difficult portfolio situation, or the Silicon Valley law firms representing them. All three conversations are confidential, fast-moving, and structured to protect everyone's optionality.

Founders ready to be proactive.

For the CEO who can see the runway ending and wants to land the plane with dignity — and for directors who need a process that protects them from successor-liability claims while doing right by employees and creditors. Early conversations are confidential. The Triage AI memo gives a clear-eyed assessment in one business day, with no obligation to engage.

  • Confidential modeling before any board notice
  • Cap-table & liquidation-preference scenarios
  • Severance, WARN-Act, and final-payroll guidance
  • Reputation preserved — no public bankruptcy filing

VC firms & operations partners.

For venture firms, syndicates, family offices, and angel groups whose portfolio companies need experienced operational and fiduciary execution before payroll fails or vendors lock out. We work directly with VC ops partners on portfolio-level coordination — discreet, fast-moving, protective of LP interests and firm reputation.

  • Independent operational assessment & cash-control stabilization
  • Asset and IP preservation; capital recovery coordination
  • Fiduciary oversight, governance, and forensic readiness
  • Investigation of irregularities where warranted

Silicon Valley counsel.

For startup and venture counsel representing founders, boards, or investors that need experienced operational and fiduciary execution alongside the legal work. Engagements are conflict-clean. You handle the legal record. We handle the operational execution. Ideal for failed financings, governance disputes, distressed acqui-hires, and runway exhaustion.

  • Operational execution alongside your legal workstream
  • Distressed acqui-hire and IP carve-out structuring
  • Records preservation, creditor portal, audit-ready ledger
  • Coordinated wind-down filings across CA, DE, TX
§ 05a — Situations We Commonly See

If any of these describe
where you are right now,
you're not the first.

None of these is unusual. All of them get worse if left unmanaged. Early action creates options.

01

Rapid cash burn or runway exhaustion

02

Failed or delayed financing rounds

03

Payroll stress or missed payroll

04

Founder disputes or governance breakdowns

05

Investor-management breakdowns

06

Vendor escalation or lockouts

07

Suspected fraud or accounting irregularities

08

Insider misconduct concerns

09

Distressed acqui-hire or M&A situations

10

Litigation pressure or threatened claims

11

Personal guarantee exposure

12

Missing or incomplete records

Confidential Intake Wind-Down Thesis
"

A wind-down is the last act of leadership a founder gets. The board meeting that ends the company is also the one that decides whether anyone will fund the next one. We exist so that act can be done with care.

Jonathan Lilo Bitumba  ·  Lead, Graveyard.vc  ·  Menlo Park

§ 06 — The People

Operators, lawyers,
and people who have been there.

Led from Menlo Park by a small team that has built, financed, and dissolved companies before. The lead practitioner came up through a family that migrated from the DRC to South Africa and built multi-generational SME businesses in trading, hospitality, and services. The founder finished college and went on to law school only after his own family's retail business wound down in Phoenix. Both ends of the wind-down — the operator side and the practitioner side — sit on the same team.

Jonathan Lilo Bitumba

Jonathan Lilo Bitumba

Lead · CFO & Investment Strategist
Amien Gassiep

Amien Gassiep

Governance · Risk & Audit
Raj Abhyanker

Raj Abhyanker

Founder · IP & Litigation
Michael Markos

Michael Markos

Counsel · Brand & IP
Read Full Bios Confidential Intake
§ 07 — Confidential Intake

Tell us where you are.
Quietly. Today.

If you are a founder, board member, lead investor, or company counsel, you can use this form to start a confidential conversation. No information leaves Graveyard.vc. No board notice is triggered. No filing is made. We respond within one business day with a private call invitation and a Triage AI memo.

  • Mutual NDA before any specifics are exchanged
  • Triage AI memo delivered within one business day
  • Modeled recovery scenarios for your specific cap table
  • Honest read on whether an ABC is even the right tool
  • Direct line to Jonathan, Amien, or Raj — not a junior
  • No obligation, no engagement, no invoice unless you ask
01
Who you areRequired so we know who to call back
Name
Role
Email Confidential. Not added to any list.
CompanyOptional
PhoneOptional
02
The situationAs much or as little as you'd like to share
Which service linePick any that apply — or skip
Runway
Total raised
Headcount
Lead investorOptional
Secured creditor?
03
What's on your mindA sentence or two — or just “please call me”

Submitting this form does not create an attorney-client relationship. All inquiries are handled under mutual NDA upon initial response. Graveyard.vc is operated by LegalForce RAPC Worldwide P.C.

From the Trademarkia family

Graveyard.vc is one of three sister practices serving venture-backed companies across the lifecycle — formation through wind-down.

Trademarkia.com
Trademark & brand protection · 125K+ clients · 80+ countries
PatentVC
IP co-investment for funded startups · $50K–$200K alongside YC, a16z, Sequoia
Graveyard.vc
Graceful wind-downs · Modern ABC sales for venture-backed companies