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Ask YC: What do founders do after they have been bought out?
I am wondering what founders do after they have been bought out?
- blogimus 18y agoOh gee, maybe launch another startup or a venture capital firm?
- vaksel 18y agousually they go work for the company that bought them out
- tstegart 18y agobecome a snarky venture capitalist?
- SwellJoe 18y agoI don't think I've met any venture capitalists that are snarky. I've been surprised by how pleasant most of them are, given the reputation the industry has. I have met a couple of obnoxiously "fratty" VCs, but they weren't partners, and they weren't with a top tier firm.
- dnaquin 18y agoGo to work for their corporate overlords. Slowly become disenfranchised, resentful and restless. Until they give up and resign before their shares fully vest.
- neilk 18y agoThis is not true. Most stay until they are fully vested.
- richtaur 18y agoIt's often less awesome than it sounds: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/460987802/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/460987802/
- asdf333 18y agowork for the man. dream about leaving. feel some responsibility to see your product through to success. get frustrated at the bureaucracy and politics. wait for shares to vest. worry that you are getting soft and won't be able to leave when the time comes. read news.yc to remind yourself of what it used to be like.
- mattmaroon 18y agoIf you mean immediately after, kegstands are usually involved.
- SwellJoe 18y agoSome of us are too old for those sorts of shenanigans. This is the point at which I would make a joke about celebrating by having a nice lunch with the other old people at Luby's, but I don't think the valley has Luby's or anything comparable, and I don't know where old people in the valley stereotypically go to eat.
- neilk 18y agoI want to ask a related question: most of you startup folks dream of selling out to somebody... what do you think it's going to be like? Do you even plan that far? You do realize that after the big liquidity moment, you have 2-3 years of working for the acquiring company, in order to realize your gains?
- MaysonL 18y agoAfter fulfilling their commitments to the acquirer, and their colleagues, whatever the hell they feel like doing.
- zain 18y agoTake their payout, quit, and do it all over again!
- menloparkbum 18y agoI once had a contract working with the division of a big company formed after the acquisition of a startup. From my vantage point most of the negative things already mentioned were valid for the founders, so I'll mention what I consider the "perks." The good points seemed to be: the founders were now VPs of something or other, so in addition to their immediate cashout, they also received VP level salaries, and bonuses. They had the freedom to say "I'm only coming in for meetings." The rest of the time they "worked" at home - i.e. they didn't do any work, they hired contractors like me to do it for them. They had the freedom to be complete assholes in meetings and interactions with staff they deemed stupid. The guys who had it hardest were the non-founders who worked at the original startup. They had to stick around for four years to receive their 300 grand or whatever it was, but couldn't be assholes or just not show up four out of every five days. They had to put up with all the weird political bullshit that happens in a big company, which was made worse because the founders were busy making everyone at the big company angry. This seemed doubly hard to take, because most startup employees take jobs at startups partially to avoid big company politics and bullshit. Founders, throw your employees a bone and make sure they have an accelerated vesting schedule upon acquisition clause written into their contract.