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I think there's a spectrum of failure, and an acqui-hire is not at the lowest end of the spectrum, not even close. Here are a few ways to fail that are worse th
by flyosity 14y ago
I think there's a spectrum of failure, and an acqui-hire is not at the lowest end of the spectrum, not even close. Here are a few ways to fail that are worse than an acqui-hire:
- Your startup fails and you maxed out your credit cards trying to keep the business/servers afloat and end up ruining your credit
- Your startup fails and you spent all the money you borrowed from your family/friends to start your company, never make any revenue, then ruin those relationships when you never pay it back
- Your startup fails and you spend a few months looking for a full-time job
Now contrast those scenarios with this acqui-hire scenario:
- Your startup has not failed or succeeded yet (it may be on the path to failure or success, too early to tell) and you are offered a nice salary (say $150k) plus a one-time stock grant (say $200-500k of RSUs) or a one-time cash bonus (say $100-200k) to work for a company you respect.
In nearly all these scenarios your startup ceases to exist, or lives on in another form separate from how you envisioned it, but only in the acqui-hire scenario are you quasi-successful. To me, an acqui-hire means that 1) a company noticed your product or service, 2) saw that you were doing excellent things with it, 3) thought that you could make an outsized contribution to their company, 4) gave you a cherry on top of a regular employment offer.
Yes, an entrepreneur's startup dream has failed, but on an individual level there are lots of positives.
(Note: I have not been acqui-hired but I have ran 2 startups that fizzled and were sold at low amounts, far below what we wanted. I don't consider them failures because, at the end, there was a monetary payment, but they were nowhere near as successful as we wanted them to be. And I ended up getting a real job after the exit.)
- BCM43 14y agoI suppose it depends on what you want out of the startup. If you want to change the world, an acqui-hire is a failure. If you want to make money, it can sometimes be a success.
- adgar 14y agoOn these forums, that means an acqui-hire is a success.
- duaneb 14y agoEven most successful startups don't really change the world.
- shawnz 14y ago> If you want to change the world, an acqui-hire is a failure. Why? Let's assume that's Google's intention -- changing the world. If Google spends their resources acquiring a company, regardless of whether it's for their tech or their employees, is it not likely that they're doing it to further such goals? Personally, I'd surely feel better able to change the world with the resources of a company like that at my disposal -- especially if they're receiving me through an acqui-hire, rather than out of college by resume or similar.
- dllthomas 14y agoYou are assuming that all changes are equivalent. If it is my goal to change the world in line with my vision, that is not the same thing as changing the world to align with Google's vision, though there may obviously be overlap.
- mibbitier 14y agoI always assumed most people 'do' a startup because they find it fun and love the freedom it gives them. So personally, it's neither about changing the world, or about the money primarily. It's about doing what you love.
- tlogan 14y agoIf founders got the same deal as other employees hired via regular channels then that might be the same level of "failure" as ones you described (depends on how much they got in debt or similar). So the main question is: what is percentage of acquihires that got better deal on employment than via regular channels? Is that common?
- dllthomas 14y agoStrictly, the question is "what deal would you have gotten otherwise?" but "what are other people getting?" is a good proxy and would be an interesting statistic.