'Tech entrepreneur took our money but failed to deliver our startup dreams'

Summary

Amy was particularly annoyed by a text she says Mr Adler sent to her, featuring a picture of him celebrating New Year's Eve on a tropical beach in Bali."Why flaunt your money to me? It's disgraceful," says Amy, who had funded the project by remortgaging her home and using credit cards.Eventually, she requested a refund through her bank and complained to the UK's Financial Ombudsman Service. A senior investigator there has provisionally recommended that the bank return $39,000 (£30,000) to Amy, according to documents seen by the BBC. She is still waiting for her bank to agree to the recommendation.As part of the process, two expert software developers reviewed the app developed by ConvrtX. According to the senior investigator, the evidence supported Amy's claim that the company had breached their contract by failing to provide the service she paid for."I think it's fair to say ConvrtX failed to exercise reasonable care and skill when they were providing the service," the investigator said. "It seems the work completed by ConvrtX cannot be salvaged and the entire process would need to be completed again if [Amy] wanted a working app to be developed."In response, lawyers for Mr Adler say that the client had "received a website, clickable prototype and a fully developed mobile app from ConvrtX".Former senior staff say that Josh Adler - the son of Kerry Adler, a wealthy Canadian businessman - presided over a culture of instability, resulting in high turnover of staff and errors due to "cutting corners" and hiring and firing inexperienced contractors.On his Facebook profile, Mr Adler described himself as #YoungAndReckless and #LivingTheDream. We spoke to a number of former employees who described him as immature and a poor leader.In company meetings, they say he "bragged" about living at the Emirates Palace Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Abu Dhabi, boasted about renting a villa in Bali, and showed off a newly purchased Porsche 911 and multiple speeding fines.He cared about "h...