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Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

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Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#81

Post by cialowicz »

pfarnsworth wrote: post #71
mrfusion wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would a small helicopter make more sense?

I worked with one of the cofounders of Intuit. He has what he described as the "Honda Accord" of helicopters. If someone worth many hundreds of millions only has an average helicopter, you probably need many tens of millions for a small helicopter.

I'd say that an R44 is the "Honda Accord" of helicopters, and they're around $500k brand new. With a net worth of hundreds of millions, I'd expect that he went for something safer (with a turbine), like a Bell Jetranger.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#82

Post by hoodoof »

>> well under the value that's possible

The value of something is the amount someone tangibly offers/gives you, at the time. If you are out of time then that is the value.

You might destroy all value if you live in the fantasy of what it is "actually worth".

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#83

Post by champagnepapi »

jonnathanson wrote: post #40
austenallred wrote: post #11

A few things, though it's hard without much info (re: revenue/growth). Regardless: 1. A $14m sale is a huuuge win. You'd be set for life. A 100% likelihood of $14m is something that is difficult to turn down in almost any scenario. Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet? Let's say you take the $14m. Your life would (presumably) ch…

"Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet?" I know you're kidding around here, but all kidding aside, whether your net worth is $14M or $50M, you can't afford a jet. (I mean, nominally speaking, you can front the sticker price -- but you'll get eaten alive on fuel and maintenance over the jet's useful lifespan, and the jet as an ass…

"If it flies, floats, or fucks rent it." ~ Old wise person.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#84

Post by osteele »

jonnathanson wrote: post #40
austenallred wrote: post #11

A few things, though it's hard without much info (re: revenue/growth). Regardless: 1. A $14m sale is a huuuge win. You'd be set for life. A 100% likelihood of $14m is something that is difficult to turn down in almost any scenario. Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet? Let's say you take the $14m. Your life would (presumably) ch…

"Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet?" I know you're kidding around here, but all kidding aside, whether your net worth is $14M or $50M, you can't afford a jet. (I mean, nominally speaking, you can front the sticker price -- but you'll get eaten alive on fuel and maintenance over the jet's useful lifespan, and the jet as an ass…

I dined once with a billionaire and a couple of multimillionaires. The billionaire owned a jet. The multimillionaires were envious of him because they only owned jet timeshares.

(If you own your own jet, it's always where you want it, you can decorate it the way you want, and you can leave your stuff in its bedroom and living room. It's like having a pied-à-terre in a city instead of renting a hotel room each time you visit.)

The operating cost of a jet that's actually ready at your beck and call also includes its crew. That's maybe another $200k/year, or 4% annual interest on $5M principal, so add another ~$5M to the wealth required in order not to go broke this way. (Disclaimer: I unfortunately have neither the practical experience nor finance knowledge to know if I've used the right fully burdened labor costs and multiplier, but it's going to be in that ballpark.)

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#85

Post by rdlecler1 »

If you get your $400m exit you might own 5-20% ($10m - $80m) of the company at that time. At this point I assume you’re a large shareholder and so you need to price out what your time cost is. That’s a lot of money to take off the table and from then you’ll never have trouble raising another seed round. Do be careful though. Business development people are paid to scour a market and this could be a huge time suck with no exit in the end. If they eat into your runway then you could get to a point where you MUST sell. Be careful. Maybe if they’re serious you can ask for a $100k convertible note to enter the negotiations.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#86

Post by gotbeans »

nebabyte wrote: post #75
zupreme wrote: post #47

Learn from my mistake. Unless you're already financially secure (meaning you could stop working and live your current lifestyle for several years) then my advice is to take the money while you can OR to leverage that valuation to pocket a few million $ (by selling equity). I'm doing great with my current startups now but several years ago I founded a very promising startup which almost immediately got many acquisitio…

Out of curiousity, what was that first startup?

Common. Why do you thing he didn't say in the first place.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#87

Post by mosselman »

zupreme wrote: post #47

Learn from my mistake. Unless you're already financially secure (meaning you could stop working and live your current lifestyle for several years) then my advice is to take the money while you can OR to leverage that valuation to pocket a few million $ (by selling equity). I'm doing great with my current startups now but several years ago I founded a very promising startup which almost immediately got many acquisitio…

Indeed, never having to work again in order to provide yourself with the basics (home, food, car, education for your kids, etc) is already a huge thing to achieve in life. Don't let multi-billion dollar acquisitions you read about here cloud your appreciation of something as big as this.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#88

Post by chatmasta »

jaggederest wrote: post #19
tgb wrote: post #15

Off-topic: I thought that tracking email opening was no longer possible in gmail? My memory of it was that you'd insert an image and track whether that was retrieved, but that GMail started caching all images ahead of time for their users so you couldn't tell if/when it was opened. See, eg, [1]. Is that not correct? [1] https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/12/gmail...

No, it only caches when they are requested by the user - google acts more like a proxy. Essentially they're preventing the remote server from grabbing HTTP headers/cookies from gmail users but not preventing them from tracking when it is loaded, chronologically.

The google servers download every image, regardless of whether or not the user later opens it or not. So since every image is downloaded, and subsequent downloads come from google cache, the pixel becomes an ineffective way of tracking open rate.

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#89

Post by kbenson »

zupreme wrote: post #47

Learn from my mistake. Unless you're already financially secure (meaning you could stop working and live your current lifestyle for several years) then my advice is to take the money while you can OR to leverage that valuation to pocket a few million $ (by selling equity). I'm doing great with my current startups now but several years ago I founded a very promising startup which almost immediately got many acquisitio…

Without any relevant startup experience to back it up my opinion, I concur. It's a hard pill to swallow, but unless you are working at the top of your software area with mostly theoretical bits that you've worked out, it's not really all that hard to copy most things in software (unless you have contracts in that give you an advantage, sort of like a mini monopoly).

It's bad enough that a few years ago here people were complaining that they would do a Show HN submission, and find a few weeks after that someone had taken their mostly completed idea, assigned a whole team of cheap developers to it and executed on it not only faster, but better. The question here is whether the business he's got running has aspects that can't be easily copied (and assessing this realistically might be hard), and if it can be copied, can it be done so without taking too long or taking more than the ~10 million plus the submitter thinks someone will offer?

Re: Ask HN: Sell my startup for $14M because I can't raise $2M?

#90

Post by chasd00 »

nols wrote: post #31
austenallred wrote: post #11

A few things, though it's hard without much info (re: revenue/growth). Regardless: 1. A $14m sale is a huuuge win. You'd be set for life. A 100% likelihood of $14m is something that is difficult to turn down in almost any scenario. Even if you'd eventually make $50m, your life wouldn't change much from a net worth of $14m to $50m. You could buy a nicer jet? Let's say you take the $14m. Your life would (presumably) ch…

It's a team of people, so the $14MM wouldn't all go to a single person. It's certainly a lot of money, but it may not be retire in comfort money.

Plus, a nice big chunk of it is going to Uncle Sam too. Let's say a 5 person team and they each end up with $2M in their checking account. Invested safely the returns match a typical Sr. working stiff salary. Sure you don't have to work, but you're not driving a Ferrari to your jet that's for sure.
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