Honestly, the story doesn't add up. Unless I misinterpreted the article, the Simon Incident happened so fast that there's no way that the company had more than a few weeks of operational budget in the bank when it started working with Simon.

What I learned when I tried to run a startup is that some people just live in their imaginations when they try to run a business. It's easy in software, because, in a way, software is living in one's imagination.

I think the company was more desperate than the article lets on.