For dead private investments
Letting go was the hard part. The paperwork takes minutes.
A counter-signed sale — fully documented, and on the record.
Built by professionals with experience at
- ~5 minutes
- from intake to inbox
- Counter-signed
- with a Certificate of Completion
- Traceable
- by contract ID and hash
The reality
Most private bets don’t come back. That’s the math, not a misjudgment.
You’ll hear it from every direction: hold on, just in case. But a diversified angel does fine on the handful that work, and the rest skew hard to zero. A position that quietly stalled — no exit, no dissolution — isn’t a misjudgment. It’s the math of the asset class.
venture financings return less than the capital invested.
Correlation Ventures
of angel exits returned less than the capital invested.
Wiltbank, Returns to Angel Investors in Groups
startups shut down on Carta in 2024 — up ~26% from 769 the year before. Many never filed dissolution.
Carta, 2024
The other way out
Three ways to close a dead position. Here’s what each one leaves behind.
A worthlessness claim
You keep the position and establish that it became wholly worthless, in a year you have to pick and defend. No transaction, no cost. The record is whatever you can gather: a dissolution, a bankruptcy filing, a final K-1, a letter from the founder. With a company that went quiet, most of that doesn’t exist.
An abandonment
You surrender every right in the position to the company, for nothing, and claim the loss. Free, and yours to declare. The record is your own letter, and with a dark company it’s a letter to an address nobody checks. The shares don’t vanish; they go back to an issuer that never processes them. Your name stays on a cap table nobody maintains.
A sale to DivestMe
A documented sale costs a flat $150 per position; DivestMe LLC buys the position for a nominal $1.00 under a counter-signed agreement. Five minutes to submit, documents in your inbox within minutes. The record is a dated contract with a named buyer: something your CPA can file, not something you have to explain. Nothing else is asked of you.* A documented sale, not an argument.
The difference
A worthlessness claim is a case you build. An abandonment is a letter you send and hope lands. Both leave you holding the argument, and leave your CPA holding your word for it. A sale leaves you holding a document. That’s what DivestMe is for. The bet died years ago. The paperwork can be done by dinner.
DivestMe documents the sale; what it means for your taxes is for you and your advisor.
* Your purchase documents may restrict transfers. When you sign, you confirm the sale breaches none of them; the guide explains what that means.
Before you decide
See what the public record says.
We check SEC EDGAR, Delaware registration, the company’s domain, and the web archive — and show what we found and what we couldn’t check.
Signals about the company’s status — not about any position, and not a determination of any tax treatment. Whether a documented sale makes sense is for the holder and their advisor to decide.
How it works
A bona fide sale. A complete record.
A position comes in.
You add one, or your AI assistant hands it off. It lands as a draft you own.
You review and decide.
You make that call — never DivestMe, never the AI.
Sign and pay.
Sign the agreement and pay the $150 fee. DivestMe buys the position for $1.00 and counter-signs.
Your package arrives.
The executed agreement and Certificate of Completion, in your inbox within minutes.
What you receive
A real document. Not a screenshot.
Every sale produces the same package, delivered to your inbox within minutes.
Asset Sale Agreement
The contract for the sale, counter-signed by both parties. You transfer the position; you receive consideration.
Certificate of Completion
A DivestMe-issued transaction acknowledgment, generated on execution with both signing timestamps.
SHA-256 integrity hash
With the contract ID, it lets anyone confirm a package matches DivestMe's executed record — checkable at /verify.
Unique contract ID
A single reference for the transaction — for your records, and for your advisor's.
What we document
If it’s private and it’s not coming back, we can document it.
No company sale, IPO, or dissolution required. The position only needs to be private, illiquid, and worth little to nothing.
Common stock
Ordinary shares in a private company that never found liquidity.
Preferred stock
Venture or angel-round preferred with no remaining path to an exit.
Convertible notes
Debt meant to convert into equity, with no conversion on the horizon.
SAFEs
A Simple Agreement for Future Equity where the triggering event isn't coming.
LLC & LP interests
A dormant fund or operating interest that still sends a K-1 every year.
Warrants & options
Rights to buy shares at a strike that now exceeds any reasonable value.
Dormant holdings
The company stopped answering years ago. No dissolution notice, no final K-1, no letter — you don't even know if it's formally closed.
The rules, as they are
What the tax code actually says.
We’re not interpreting these for you — just stating the rules.
Capital losses offset capital gains dollar-for-dollar. There is no annual cap on using a loss against gains.
IRC §1211(b)
Only the excess — losses beyond your gains — is limited, to $3,000 a year against ordinary income. The rest carries forward indefinitely.
IRC §1211; IRS Topic No. 409
Loss on qualifying small-business stock that can be treated as ordinary rather than capital — single, or married filing jointly.
IRC §1244
A loss needs an identifiable event. A sale is one with a date and a second signature.
Pricing
Pay only for what you confirm.
A flat fee per position. No percentage of anything, no hidden charges.
Single position
One dead position, documented.
- Counter-signed Asset Sale Agreement
- Certificate of Completion
- SHA-256 verified PDF
- Unique contract ID
Five-position pack
For several positions handed over at once.
- Everything in Single position
- Document up to 5 positions
- 12 months to use them
- Pay only for what you confirm
Ten-position pack
The same, for a longer list.
- Everything in Five-position pack
- Document up to 10 positions
- One checkout for the whole list
- Unused positions stay on the account
Documenting positions for clients? See firm pricing.
Questions, answered plainly.
Still have a question?
Ask us anything about the transaction or the documentation before you start.
Contact usWhy we built this
DivestMe started with friends. You back someone’s company — maybe they backed yours — because that’s how it works here. Ten years on, you’re still friends, but the company is long gone and you’ve both moved on. The investment never closed. We built a clean, documented way to finally close it — because capital and attention should keep moving, not sit frozen in a bet that died a decade ago. A sale asks nothing of the founder — you close your side without reopening theirs.
Close the position cleanly.
A real sale and a signed record, in your inbox within minutes.