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>Founders like you describe are likely mythical. Don't exist. Not a single one in the world... at least if you mean founders of possibly competing firms. If th
by jasode 7y ago
>Founders like you describe are likely mythical. Don't exist. Not a single one in the world... at least if you mean founders of possibly competing firms.
If that were true, both Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg would have said "yes" to billion dollar offers from Yahoo and therefore both Google and Facebook would have become subsidiaries of Yahoo. Well, we know that didn't actually happen and Jerry Yang is not the boss of Larry Page and Mark Zuckerberg. Startup founders saying "no" to potential acquirers is not a myth.
- mamon 7y agoSaying "no" is only possible if you haven't taken significant VC money yet and excercise full control over the company. Otherwise your investors will often force you to say "yes" to aquisition because they want to cash out. EDIT: I think it is also highly dependent on the market you're trying to enter: if you are creating a new niche for yourself, like Uber did back in the day, then investors might be willing to take you all the way to IPO. If you try to compete with the existing market giants, like Facebook, they will chicken out, and see aquisition as only viable option ("if you can't beat them, join them").
- emn13 7y agoIf they had started a business in 2019: then yes, indeed, that likely would have been the outcome. But they didn't, did they? The barriers to entry are much, much higher now; and the vested interests seem more keen on acquiring new ventures before they becomes threatening.