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Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

derekyan.com

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Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#31

Post by zhyan7109 »

Eridrus wrote: post #27
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

I dunno how much folks should trust this as more of an account of his specific journey, given this guy apparently didn't do an 83b election and got stuck with a big tax bill (ch 11).

OP here, 83b didn’t apply in my case as I had only stick options, referenced in chapter 11

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#32

Post by zhyan7109 »

gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#33

Post by zhyan7109 »

mojuba wrote: post #21
nubg wrote: post #15

> Every inbound deserves respect, even if you think you’re not ready. Because the truth is, readiness in M&A isn’t a moment—it’s a mindset. Dear ChatGPT, please rephrase these bulletpoints into a chapter of my book: ... Pray tell why may we not just read the bulletpoints instead? Sold your own company, but unable to use your own words?

So the market is going to be flooded with this type of soulless books that have no distinct character or style, just pure dry facts? In a sense, "I wrote a book about it" is disingenuous and I agree the author's bullet list would probably be more interesting and would save us a lot of time.

Good feedback, thanks! Will include a version of the original stream of conscience and raw note in a day or two

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#34

Post by zhyan7109 »

dangero wrote: post #11
einarvollset wrote: post #2

Great content and perspective. I would say (and fair warning, this is obviously biased as I run one of the investment banks that specialize in B2B SaaS M&A between $2-20M ARR - Discretion Capital), this: "Now should you hire a banker when there is no actionable inbound interest and you have no prior relationships? I would recommend no, as in such a case bankers would typically rely on their network of Corp Devs and p…

The problem I’ve heard about small deals is that the bankers want a larger percentage. Can you comment on that aspect?

Depends on who you talk to, 3-5% of total deal size plus a retainer is the norm

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#35

Post by zhyan7109 »

pieterhg wrote: post #14
jasonshen wrote: post #6

Really appreciate the deep dive here. M&A is the final boss of startups and so rarely do we get any credible, detailed information about how things go down from the founder's perspective, especially at the 9+ figure deal size. Having written a book about pivots, I know how hard it can be to then distill a grueling experience into something digestible. Thank you Derek!

What was the sales price? $100,000,000?

haha sorry this info is under NDA

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#38

Post by quamserena »

zhyan7109 wrote: post #32
gbnwl wrote: post #18

I really enjoy the actual content of the few chapters I read so far, but the styling is 100% LLM, and it's so hard to get through multiple pages of the same exact mannerisms repeated over and over and over. It kind of feels like reading the world's longest LinkedIn post. I really wish this wasn't the case because I really want to take in the story and lessons, but it's literally too fatiguing to get through much in o…

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

You can simply ask the model to point out if there are any problems and then fix them yourself. You don't have to copy and paste its output into your book. You can also pay for an actual copyeditor to edit your book.

Re: Show HN: It took 4 years to sell my startup. I wrote a book about it

#40

Post by n_u »

quamserena wrote: post #38
zhyan7109 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP here, thanks for this feedback, my workflow was to first have a draft and then feed it into a LLM to fix grammar and improve conciseness. Wished there was a tool (I think folks are already working on) that is similar to what a book editor does which suggests changes as opposed to changing the styling.

You can simply ask the model to point out if there are any problems and then fix them yourself. You don't have to copy and paste its output into your book. You can also pay for an actual copyeditor to edit your book.

You can also edit it yourself and then ask a friend, relative, or colleague to read the parts you are struggling with improving. "Does this sentence flow? Is there a better way to say this? Is this confusing?"

If you're going to sink time into writing a book, it's worth spending some time editing it so your message gets through clearly. But that's just my opinion, your mileage may vary.

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