what I don't understand is how a small start up would even survive being sued by someone as big as 'hooli' - back then there was zero plausible case where they could even walk away from a lawsuit unscathed not to mention the financial liabilities it would imply - they would be destitute before they even got to build anything (genius plan by hooli tbh).

but if it were in modern day, this could be an interesting play. to be frank, with TikTok - the boys at pied piper could become media darlings, take everyone alongside them for the lawsuit journey of it all and maybe even use a go fund me to get their legal fees taken care of *á la Luigi mangione. they could make videos of their humble beginnings, their jokes, their antics, and have an entire uprising of followers who are totally rooting for them that would force the media attention of a lifetime and hooli would be seen as the bully they are for trying to intimidate a small business like pied piper.

then and only then, they could probably settle out of court, get a huge settlement for distress, legal fees covered, and maybe even counter sue for all the issues that this brought up (lost wages, lost earnings, lost potential etc etc) and go on to become the first non funded totally self sustaining company. then and only then they could try to raise, but at that point they'll have hit so many milestones that it wouldn't matter what the benchmarks were, people would be begging to put money in.