A note on VCs and Investors pushing out Founders from their own company:

I founded my Vancouver company in 2013, and for those first three years, it was profitable and never raised any funds - it didn't need to. I received clients through word of mouth and it was successful. Because my company was the first of its kind, I received a lot of international attention. I was invited to speak at banks and conferences worldwide as Bitcoin and Blockchain technology was still very nascent at the time.

This changed in 2016 with a new CEO who, after gaining my trust, quickly raised money from his friends. My control over the company was removed overnight. I alerted our shareholders and was told they didn't want to get involved. This CEO ultimately removed me, and the company shut down within a year when allegations emerged that were never proven and dismissed.

For 4 years I watched my company slowly burn to the ground while someone else was in charge. I hung on and never left. It was a company I founded in my 20s -incurring sleepless nights, paying everyone first, and hunting for clients to ensure I could make payroll even when I couldn't pay myself. 

Raising money from investors who replaced me and letting a CEO into my company who I didn't know very well was my undoing. 

Watching what happened with Bench Accounting is horrible and its closure without warning signals to me that a lot was going on behind the scenes that even its staff were unaware of.