A better way to incentivise these “investors” would’ve been to give them a 10% interest in the profits of this project.
All said tongue in cheek, of course. I realize this would not be practical at the dollar level we’re discussing here, but conceptually, that’s the way these endeavors are supposed to work. If one commits capital, one should expect a return on investment. Instead, the investor gets nothing other than eventually receiving a product they’ve already paid fairly for and the company gets free capital.