You are Camille Brun, founder of Reviva, a Grenoble workshop that repairs, certifies and resells small household appliances. Your lead investor's term sheet expires on 5 October, 21 days from now, and you are €230,000 short of the minimum close. Before you spend those 21 days, you have to decide what actually stands between Reviva and a close.
The situation
Reviva collects small household appliances, repairs them, certifies each unit for two years and resells it. Eleven people work there; seven are technicians, five of them women returning to paid work after career breaks, around whom the intake, training and certification routines were built. In the last twelve months the workshop refurbished 9,200 units: €1.40 million of revenue at a 28% contribution margin and an operating loss of €180,000, from capacity built ahead of demand.
Three businesses run through that one workshop: own-brand resale to consumers, white-label refurbishment for retail chains, and a repair subscription for households. The accounts do not split contribution between them.
You hold €350,000 in cash and spend €70,000 a month. A regional impact fund will lead a €900,000 seed round at €3.0 million post-money, but not below €750,000; €520,000 is soft-committed. At the minimum, your 62% stake falls to about 46%. A second investor offers €250,000 with a board seat and a clause requiring a professional chief executive within eighteen months; a €150,000 public innovation loan is available, repaid out of the monthly burn; your existing angels can add a small bridge. And the fund has a second condition: it will finance one of the three businesses, not all three.
In the workshop, absenteeism is up 19% on the previous quarter, and two of the seven technicians have told you they will leave if the weekend shifts continue into winter. You are working about seventy hours a week, with a newborn at home. If 5 October passes without a close, the term sheet lapses, and soft commitments like these have historically shed about 40%.