Boosted spread across six models and 30 countries, took venture debt, and went bust

Boosted was one of Kickstarter's early hardware successes and a defining electric-longboard brand, boosted by YouTuber Casey Neistat. After co-founder Sanjay Dastoor handed the CEO job to Jeff Russakow in 2017, the company set bigger goals, including an 'Apple-like cadence' of two major product releases a year. By The Verge's count it had launched half a dozen models in six years on a shoestring budget, raised nearly $80 million by the end of 2018 from Khosla Ventures and others, and expanded into more than 30 countries.

Growth ate into revenue and the money raised. Boosted made its boards in China, so US tariffs added strain, and its early-2019 Boosted Rev, a $1,600 scooter, was delayed by a latch issue and production scaling just as its bank accounts suffered. With backers unwilling to add more, Boosted quietly borrowed $18.5 million in May 2019 from venture-debt firm Structural Capital, pledging all its assets and letting Structural take control of parts of the business if payments were missed.

Boosted spent most of the loan in a few months, delayed vendor payments, and by late 2019 Structural controlled every expense. A Lime deal to hire staff and license scooter IP for $30M of stock was in the works and Yamaha showed interest in buying it, but neither closed. Khosla Ventures lent $2.4 million in bridge loans through February 2020, then stopped. Most staff were laid off and Structural foreclosed in March 2020. Khosla later sued Lime, alleging sabotage; Lime denied it.

An $18.5M loan secured on all its assets; layoffs in early 2020; a March 2020 foreclosure auction where Structural bought >$5M of tariff-refund rights for $400,000.

The company launched many models and entered 30+ countries faster than its revenue could fund.

Manufacturing in China exposed it to new US tariffs, and refunds were still outstanding when it collapsed.

The Rev scooter was announced as cash ran short and was delayed by a latch problem and production scaling.

Needing money after backers declined to add more, it took an $18.5M loan secured on all assets, giving the lender control over spending.

Rescue deals (Yamaha, a larger Lime deal) did not close before cash ran out.

Fast growth on thin margins is fragile: a tariff hit, a delayed flagship and an asset-backed venture-debt loan can hand control of the company to a lender within months.

Structural Capital took Boosted's assets in March 2020, buying the tariff-refund rights for $400,000, and Lime ended up with its intellectual property. Khosla Ventures filed two lawsuits, later consolidated, accusing Lime of sabotaging the Yamaha deal; Lime said the claims had no factual basis and a trial was tentatively set for May 2022.