This is mostly right. DrawQuest would make a fine lifestyle business for a few partners, but is unlikely to become a business that represents a venture-backed opportunity. However because we built it as a venture-backed business, that's the bar we're held to.
Per my post, I'm exploring options for keeping the service alive for the next few months (and hopefully longer), and am cautiously optimistic we'll be able to figure something out.
I don't think that's the right way to look at it. The VC money you spent is a sunk cost; it's part of the past and the only question is how to make the most of its assets. That VCs are no longer interested in the business makes sense, but it doesn't follow that it needs to be shut down, eliminating its remaining value. They could write it down as a loss, stop thinking about it, and let the founders run it at zero cost to themselves. So I don't the bar you're being held to is a real thing.
What I do think is real is that a bunch of equity is missing, and for the company's cashflow, that might make it non-viable. You may have also built in a way that makes its operating costs too high to turn it into a lifestyle business. Or perhaps you just don't want a lifestyle business. All of those (and others I haven't even thought of, I'm sure) are great reasons to call it quits. I'm just objecting to the "bar" part of it.
As I said, we're considering our options going forward, but for all intents and purposes, the venture-backed startup that was Canvas Networks has failed.
Could you elaborate on how the investors would lose if they run it as a lifestyle business? Would they make more money back by liquidating their assets?
I think they "lose" in that they'll be angry to see someone still making a living on the idea while they saw no returns. Or maybe they can't break free, and keeping it running would still mean just giving the profits to the investors for the next 100 years and it's easier to just close it all together?
Per my post, I'm exploring options for keeping the service alive for the next few months (and hopefully longer), and am cautiously optimistic we'll be able to figure something out.