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Also: the title. It is not "at exit", but really "at IPO", which might be the most infrequent exit there is.

mi100hael 10y ago
Yeah, it also doesn't appear to contain any that were bootstrapped. I wonder if any bootstrapped startups have ever IPO'd. My favorite startup exit is PlentyOfFish.com. 100% owned by one dude who made over half a billion cash selling it to Match.com.
- mgummelt 10y ago
  Microsoft only sold 5%, and Gates says they never used the money.
- jhchen 10y ago
  Atlassian, which just IPOd this year, was famously bootstrapped. There are two founders, each with 37.7% [1], so the table is misleading and the should really be 75.4%. Atlassian eventually took funding from Accel, 8 years after its founding. It is also curious the table rounded Accel's ownership up (12.7 -> 13), but truncated the founders' (37.7 -> 37). [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650372/000155837015001685/filename1.htm#PRINCIPALSHAREHOLDERS_745377 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650372/000155837015...
  - wwalser 10y ago
    Atlassian's funding wasn't typical VC growth money either. The first round was taken off the table by the founders and was primarily a mechanism to get board members in preparation for a US based IPO. They also took a second round, 100% of which which went to early employees in the form of a secondary market sale for stock options.
- replicatorblog 10y ago
  There have been at least four in the last five years (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QT-vg7OHHhO9VvSHpgo7r1yWlAP89yqVLMRj1Alzvj8/edit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QT-vg7OHHhO9VvSHpgo7...). There are many more notable bootstrapped exits, e.g. Mojang/Minecraft. Lots of bootstrapped companies that could IPO, e.g. Mailchimp And many other examples of companies that took very little money making their founders richer than comparable funded founders. E.g. Each of the founders of Wayfair made more than EVERYONE involved in the sale of Zappos.
wwalser 10y ago
But a good proxy for VCs, where most non-IPO exists are basically considered a failure. 1.5-3x returns from a "successful" sale to a larger company is a failed investment for most VC firms.

Yeah, it also doesn't appear to contain any that were bootstrapped. I wonder if any bootstrapped startups have ever IPO'd. My favorite startup exit is PlentyOfFish.com. 100% owned by one dude who made over half a billion cash selling it to Match.com.

mgummelt 10y ago
Microsoft only sold 5%, and Gates says they never used the money.
jhchen 10y ago
Atlassian, which just IPOd this year, was famously bootstrapped. There are two founders, each with 37.7% [1], so the table is misleading and the should really be 75.4%. Atlassian eventually took funding from Accel, 8 years after its founding. It is also curious the table rounded Accel's ownership up (12.7 -> 13), but truncated the founders' (37.7 -> 37). [1] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650372/000155837015001685/filename1.htm#PRINCIPALSHAREHOLDERS_745377 https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1650372/000155837015...
- wwalser 10y ago
  Atlassian's funding wasn't typical VC growth money either. The first round was taken off the table by the founders and was primarily a mechanism to get board members in preparation for a US based IPO. They also took a second round, 100% of which which went to early employees in the form of a secondary market sale for stock options.
replicatorblog 10y ago
There have been at least four in the last five years (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QT-vg7OHHhO9VvSHpgo7r1yWlAP89yqVLMRj1Alzvj8/edit https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1QT-vg7OHHhO9VvSHpgo7...). There are many more notable bootstrapped exits, e.g. Mojang/Minecraft. Lots of bootstrapped companies that could IPO, e.g. Mailchimp And many other examples of companies that took very little money making their founders richer than comparable funded founders. E.g. Each of the founders of Wayfair made more than EVERYONE involved in the sale of Zappos.

wwalser 10y ago

But a good proxy for VCs, where most non-IPO exists are basically considered a failure. 1.5-3x returns from a "successful" sale to a larger company is a failed investment for most VC firms.