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or, "How taking venture capital is a risk, and where the control lays even if you're successful." (also: especially if you're successful). Except that Tony Hs

by alttab 16y ago

or, "How taking venture capital is a risk, and where the control lays even if you're successful." (also: especially if you're successful). Except that Tony Hsieh is now on a committee with Jeff Bezos, and 4 executives from Amazon and Zappos. It will still operate as their own entity, run by Tony, and they've basically placated the VCs with Amazon stock while he gets full control over the company, culture, and with access to Amazon's resources. They went inside the deal in a couple of places, check out Inc.'s article on the subject.

dhimes 16y ago
It will still operate as their own entity, run by Tony For now, at least. As staunch commented on the other thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409915 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409915), this is still really a honeymoon period.
- alttab 16y ago
  By the looks of it, as long as he continues to reach his numbers he'll have things the way he wants it. Not to say that he got out Scott-free, but in this case he at least gave himself control over his own destiny. It was the price he paid to get the company where it was that he was in that bind (a good bind to be in, if you ask me), and the best move he could have made to keep the company and the destiny of the culture in his hands. (Edit: An argument against this case would be Tivoli. It was bought out by IBM and slowly the cultures merged.)
  - irrelative 16y ago
    ...as long as he continues to reach his numbers. The real position he wanted to be in was to be able to ignore short term numbers for long term positioning. I think it's safe to say he can't really do that anymore.
    - alttab 16y ago
      I agree. His move was still better than having the VCs choose the highest bidder leaving him without a company to run. I think he reached a local maximum given his situation.
hga 16y ago
How often does this happy (at least initially, as noted by dhimes) an outcome happen?

by alttab 16y ago

dhimes 16y ago

It will still operate as their own entity, run by Tony For now, at least. As staunch commented on the other thread (http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409915 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1409915), this is still really a honeymoon period.

alttab 16y ago
By the looks of it, as long as he continues to reach his numbers he'll have things the way he wants it. Not to say that he got out Scott-free, but in this case he at least gave himself control over his own destiny. It was the price he paid to get the company where it was that he was in that bind (a good bind to be in, if you ask me), and the best move he could have made to keep the company and the destiny of the culture in his hands. (Edit: An argument against this case would be Tivoli. It was bought out by IBM and slowly the cultures merged.)
- irrelative 16y ago
  ...as long as he continues to reach his numbers. The real position he wanted to be in was to be able to ignore short term numbers for long term positioning. I think it's safe to say he can't really do that anymore.
  - alttab 16y ago
    I agree. His move was still better than having the VCs choose the highest bidder leaving him without a company to run. I think he reached a local maximum given his situation.

hga 16y ago

How often does this happy (at least initially, as noted by dhimes) an outcome happen?