4 ms·

Thank you for that feedback. "Walk Away Before" and BATNA seem easiest to figure out, so maybe I'll start by determining that. My company is just me. They have

by etsll 11y ago

Thank you for that feedback. "Walk Away Before" and BATNA seem easiest to figure out, so maybe I'll start by determining that. My company is just me. They have 4 founders and will be hiring 5-10 people soon. Both companies had successful crowdfunding campaigns but neither is shipping a product yet.

Udo 11y ago
> Both companies had successful crowdfunding campaigns but neither is shipping a product yet. That sounds like you might have to refund some or all of your contributors. After the acquisition, your project will cease to exist. It's unlikely that both crowdfunding promises were exactly the same. Even if the intention is to fold your product into theirs, the realistic outcome is that your employers will ship the product as they intended, leaving your supporters with little to nothing. You need to clean this up now, rather than later.
- etsll 11y ago
  We've discussed that at length and are committed to meeting our crowdfunding obligations to the full satisfaction of our backers.
perlgeek 11y ago
> but neither is shipping a product yet. I wouldn't call it "bootstrapped", then. For me, a company is bootstrapped if it makes enough money from its products to sustain itself and its founders/employees.
- greglindahl 11y ago
  I've never run into anyone who's defined it the way you do; everyone I've heard define it does it in terms of not yet having taken a cash investment from a non-founder. "We've bootstrapped the company so far, but we don't think we will ship a MVP without taking at least a seed round" wouldn't draw any protests of misuse, in my experience. You are correct that most bootstrapped companies that have launched end up supporting themselves; that's survivor bias in action.
  - jwatte 11y ago
    I'm more used to three previous definition. I would say those companies have tried to bootstrap, but bit successfully achieved it. Of you are a successfully bootstrapped business, you achieved goals without taking outside investment money.
kenferry 11y ago
I'll just add: to estmiate stuff like BATNA, try breaking the problem down and summing up. It's the same as in programming. How do you solve big problems? By breaking them down into littler and littler problems. Then when you go back to talk to these folks, give them the rationale and the small numbers rather than (just) the big number. If they have issues with your methodology you can likely work it out. This is largely covered by the book, "Getting to Yes". Short and helpful.

by etsll 11y ago

Udo 11y ago

> Both companies had successful crowdfunding campaigns but neither is shipping a product yet. That sounds like you might have to refund some or all of your contributors. After the acquisition, your project will cease to exist. It's unlikely that both crowdfunding promises were exactly the same. Even if the intention is to fold your product into theirs, the realistic outcome is that your employers will ship the product as they intended, leaving your supporters with little to nothing. You need to clean this up now, rather than later.

etsll 11y ago
We've discussed that at length and are committed to meeting our crowdfunding obligations to the full satisfaction of our backers.

perlgeek 11y ago

> but neither is shipping a product yet. I wouldn't call it "bootstrapped", then. For me, a company is bootstrapped if it makes enough money from its products to sustain itself and its founders/employees.

greglindahl 11y ago
I've never run into anyone who's defined it the way you do; everyone I've heard define it does it in terms of not yet having taken a cash investment from a non-founder. "We've bootstrapped the company so far, but we don't think we will ship a MVP without taking at least a seed round" wouldn't draw any protests of misuse, in my experience. You are correct that most bootstrapped companies that have launched end up supporting themselves; that's survivor bias in action.
- jwatte 11y ago
  I'm more used to three previous definition. I would say those companies have tried to bootstrap, but bit successfully achieved it. Of you are a successfully bootstrapped business, you achieved goals without taking outside investment money.

kenferry 11y ago

I'll just add: to estmiate stuff like BATNA, try breaking the problem down and summing up. It's the same as in programming. How do you solve big problems? By breaking them down into littler and littler problems. Then when you go back to talk to these folks, give them the rationale and the small numbers rather than (just) the big number. If they have issues with your methodology you can likely work it out. This is largely covered by the book, "Getting to Yes". Short and helpful.