I pitched Wesley Gottesman through a warm introduction and he was very receptive to my business. He then set a series of follow up meetings with his senior partners, and even sat on some consumer sales calls. All seemed to be going well. As Wesley begun to his due diligence he asked a number of standard questions - he wanted the full deck, full model, different model scenarios, model in excel form, etc. All seemed to be going fine and we provided him everything he asked for. Then like other typical "early stage" funds, he passed for a lame reason after ghosting for 2 weeks... basically said that it was too early. Whatever, I don't care, on to the next investor. No big deal, happy to accept a lame excuse pass. The problem then came when I got a cold LinkedIn message from a competitor that said basically, "Hey. Wanted To Let You Know That Wesley Gottesman of Brand Foundry sent me your entire deck and financial model." After this, I emailed Wesley and his senior partners and said that it was wrong to do this and the materials we shared with them were highly confidential information. They said that they would never do this... totally false. I had the competitor email me proof that in fact Wesley Gottesman had indeed shared my entire deck and financial model with the competitor. I again told them it was wrong to do this, and that was the end of it, they never responded. I then discovered that Wesley Gottesman then went out of his way to bad mouth me and my company to other investors we courted. He claimed that I was unprofessional and childish. I didn't call him out on his bad mouthing, because it isn't worth the time and I didn't want to further escalate things. I then had the governing body that oversees the industry my business is in, reach out to me to let me know that they were aware of the business and were watching closely to ensure we are compliant. Of course we will be compliant, but we didn't want to get on their radar just yet. We are pre-launch, and they too got their information from Wesley Gottesman! So shady! This rubs me the wrong way - own up to what you did, keep confidential information confidential, and don't bad mouth young founders because they called you out on your truly shady actions. I don't like that founders feel the need to bow down to poorly behaved investors and turn a blind eye to their shady actions. Why even become an investor when you ask this unprofessional and childish? AVOID WESLEY GOTTESMAN and AVOID BRAND FOUNDRY at all costs! They will pass your materials over to competitors, and if you give any push back on them, they will bad mouth you to other investors and put you on the radar of governing agencies. Avoid avoid avoid avoid! I have also heard from other founders, that they did invest in, that after they give you a check they are very unhelpful with follow on fundraises and leave you out on your own. You are better off pitching your business elsewhere and taking money from someone else more professional and better behaved.

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