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An exit which results in shutting down the product means we would need to feel the cash is greater than the business opportunity. Our team (investors included)

by toast76 13y ago

An exit which results in shutting down the product means we would need to feel the cash is greater than the business opportunity. Our team (investors included) believe in the vision of the business (and the data supports that belief), and it's almost certain that no acqui-hire could exceed that expectation. If it were, then I'd be the first to put myself in the "fail" category.

onan_barbarian 13y ago
What makes you think that the end results of the exit will be obvious ahead of the exit? Do you honestly think the acquirer will put this on a contract? There are a lot of gray areas here. There's a continuum between "disgraceful acquihire" and "honorable technology purchase". The acquirer may screw half your customers and please the other half. You may find that the exponential growth curve that you plotted based on your data from year 1-2 actually finds its way to a frustrating asymptote in years 5-6 and some of your investors want to see a return on their money - perhaps more than they want to ensure the happiness of each and every last customer of yours. Perhaps your employees may start to feel the same way, especially after N years - fire-breathing startup guys may happily trade stickers with profanity on them (oh, my) for better salaries, ability to move around within a large organization stocked with some interesting people (remember that some of the BigCOs being discussed here are placed like Google and Facebook, it's not like they're going to some ginormous bank to code COBOL), etc - even if they have to do the odd PowerPoint from time to time. Inability to predict this sort of thing is usually a good reason not to indulge in profanity-laced public rants about something that factors into outcomes for your investors and team. Unless you're actually specifically aiming to burn your ships behind you, in which case, I salute your bravery.

by toast76 13y ago

onan_barbarian 13y ago

What makes you think that the end results of the exit will be obvious ahead of the exit? Do you honestly think the acquirer will put this on a contract? There are a lot of gray areas here. There's a continuum between "disgraceful acquihire" and "honorable technology purchase". The acquirer may screw half your customers and please the other half. You may find that the exponential growth curve that you plotted based on your data from year 1-2 actually finds its way to a frustrating asymptote in years 5-6 and some of your investors want to see a return on their money - perhaps more than they want to ensure the happiness of each and every last customer of yours. Perhaps your employees may start to feel the same way, especially after N years - fire-breathing startup guys may happily trade stickers with profanity on them (oh, my) for better salaries, ability to move around within a large organization stocked with some interesting people (remember that some of the BigCOs being discussed here are placed like Google and Facebook, it's not like they're going to some ginormous bank to code COBOL), etc - even if they have to do the odd PowerPoint from time to time. Inability to predict this sort of thing is usually a good reason not to indulge in profanity-laced public rants about something that factors into outcomes for your investors and team. Unless you're actually specifically aiming to burn your ships behind you, in which case, I salute your bravery.