Cluch Pty Ltd trades out of administration after owing $3m, former worker speaks out

A young dad has vowed to never work for a start-up again after his nightmare experience at a streaming service before the company went bust.

A young dad has vowed to never work for a start-up again after his nightmare experience at a streaming service before the company went bust.

Sydney-based sport streaming platform Cluch Pty Ltd entered voluntary administration in September with debts of more than $3 million.

The business is still trading but with a severely reduced workforce, from 22 staff to just five.

Marc Summers, 38, said his time at Cluch was marred by late pay runs and 70-hour working weeks as the company struggled to survive.

He quit 18 months ago after nearing breaking point and landing another job at Fox Sports, a sister company to this publication.

Mr Summers said he was “absolutely gutted” to learn of the company’s demise, particularly upon discovering that a number of small businesses whom he had brought on had been left out of pocket.

“I was under the proviso they were being paid,” the dad-of-two told news.com.au, adding that his professional reputation was no doubt impacted as he had recruited these businesses to contract for the streaming platform.

Cluch livestreamed community, state and national sporting events.

Cluch launched four years ago and is a sports streaming service that had deals in place with a number of state and national sports bodies, including the Queensland Rugby League, the Australian Football League, and Netball Australia.

According to a statutory report the administrator lodged with the corporate regulator, Cluch had been trading insolvent since at least November 2021 and incurred debts of $1.9 million after this date. No action has been taken against any individuals involved with the company.

Creditors voted on a Deed of Company Arrangement (DOCA) where the directors pay a certain amount of money to take the business out of external administration and back under their control.

The company is now back under the control of its directors.

A shareholder and contractor of Cluch, Chris Burnett, previously said he planned to challenge the DOCA in court. He is only receiving back 5c for every dollar he is owed.

Mr Summers said “the writing was on the wall” by the time he had resigned in June last year, having worked at the streaming platform since 2021.

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The website is currently down but the business is still trading.

Former employees and contractors have dished on what it was like working for the company.

“Invoice deadlines weren’t being met,” Mr Summers recalled.

“Pay would always come in different days. One time it was a week late, then it was like 10 days late.”

He claimed that on one occasion, a colleague had to ask if her pay would be arriving on time because she had a wedding and rent due later that week, and was unsure if she’d be able to afford both without her wage.

For Mr Summers, he said the late pay was “irritating”.

“We might have had a car problem and it needed to be paid”, which would leave them low on cash for other expenses, he said.

A contractor and shareholder, Chris Burnett, said Cluch let its debt with him run up to $300,000 and he had to initiate winding up proceedings from fear of not getting his money back.

Two days before he would have taken action against the company, the $300,000 “just popped up” in his bank account, he said.

“It was a shambles,” Mr Burnett said.

One of the company’s directors was contacted for comment. Cluch’s website is non responsive.

Marc Summers said he was nearly brought to breaking point.

Mr Summers said he would never get a job at a start-up again after drowning in an “insane” workload.

He said it wasn’t uncommon to work 18-hour days and often his weeks were between 50 to 60 hours – and as he was on a salary, there was no overtime.

“I don’t think I’ve worked more in my life,” he said.

“I remember one night I was sitting at home, I get a phone call saying we need this vision uploaded. I said ‘I can’t do it right now, I’m with my kids’.”

He added: “It went from being a live streaming production platform to being data analysis, data people came on board. Then it turned into app development. It expanded very quickly.

“I think they exploded too quickly to deal with what was coming in.”

According to a report the administrators lodged with ASIC, Cluch’s failure was put down to insufficient revenue stream, high operating costs, poor financial management and unpaid debts to the tax office.

According to that same report, staff are owed a total of $309,000 from unpaid superannuation, wages, staff expenses, annual leave and long service leave.

A further $2.796 million is owed to nonpriority creditors, including $1.98 million to unsecured creditors.

In total, 94 creditors are owed money, including Amazon Web Services, American Express, the Australian Football League, Hockey NT, Netball Australia, Netball NSW, School Sport Australia and of course the QRL.

Of that, the largest creditor is the Australian Taxation Office which is owed $502,000.

Other large debts to big organisations include Netball Australia owed $82,000 and School Sport Australia owed $50,000, while one individual is owed $228,000.

Some of these debts were for contract revenue which had not yet been earned under its respective partnership agreements, the report noted.

The administrator identified debts of $1.980 million to unsecured creditors, but only $1.356 million has been claimed.

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