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Is being acquired the absolute ultimate aim for everybody's (YC) start up? Surely being profitable is enough for many people? I also think there's an extremely
by Jabbles 16y ago
Is being acquired the absolute ultimate aim for everybody's (YC) start up? Surely being profitable is enough for many people? I also think there's an extremely important distinction between "being funded" and "profitable", which this chart seems to ignore.
- tomhoward 16y agoFrom YC's point-of-view, the ultimate aim is to be acquired or to IPO (which AFAIK has never happened and is unlikely to happen in more than a few exceptional cases). An exit the only way YC gets a return on their investment. This aligns with tech startup culture generally, where the investors invest with the hope of someday making an exit, and only then does the founders' big payday arrive (the "liquidity event"). In this context, profitability is a secondary question to whether the company is still alive, growing, and on track to delivering the founders and investors a successful exit.
- thevivekpandey 16y agoYou say: "being profitable is enough for many people" as if being profitable is easier compared to getting acquired. For most web based companies, however, getting acquired is easier.
- wololo 16y agoalso, the judgments on how the startups are doing (whether they had "enough" runway) were so subjective that i removed them in the public version.