I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M • Hacker News Board

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#21

Post by drclau » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:40 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #17

verganileonardo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you provide examples of that?

Sure, Amazon does it all the time to small startups. They fly you into Seattle, setup a fancy meeting with strategy teams and M&A, make you run through a pitch deck, explain every aspect of your business. They take diligent notes until they fully understand your inner workings, they tell you thanks, you'll hear from us soon. And nothing happens, 6 months later AWS launches your exact product. Founders need to be extr…

This is not an example. This is an explanation of how it could happen.

Can you share an actual case? Such as, a startup that went through this.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#22

Post by paxys » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:41 PM UTC

jakozaur wrote: post #2

Hearing many horror stories over backing out at last minute, I wonder why breakup fees and escrow are not more popular in startup world. E.g. if you would like to acquire for $5mln you need to deposit $100k. If you walk out, this is a breakup fee. If startup bails it also have to pay same amount to the acquire.

It is standard in bigger corporate M&As, but a tiny startup isn't going to have the leverage to pull it off.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#23

Post by darkhorn » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #17

verganileonardo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you provide examples of that?

Sure, Amazon does it all the time to small startups. They fly you into Seattle, setup a fancy meeting with strategy teams and M&A, make you run through a pitch deck, explain every aspect of your business. They take diligent notes until they fully understand your inner workings, they tell you thanks, you'll hear from us soon. And nothing happens, 6 months later AWS launches your exact product. Founders need to be extr…

Could that mean that if you upload your code to AWS they can steal your software design? I think yes.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#24

Post by nefitty » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:42 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #17

verganileonardo wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you provide examples of that?

Sure, Amazon does it all the time to small startups. They fly you into Seattle, setup a fancy meeting with strategy teams and M&A, make you run through a pitch deck, explain every aspect of your business. They take diligent notes until they fully understand your inner workings, they tell you thanks, you'll hear from us soon. And nothing happens, 6 months later AWS launches your exact product. Founders need to be extr…

There's an early episode of Silicon Valley where they go through something similar.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#25

Post by hinkley » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

athiercelin wrote: post #4

"In many ways, I feel like my job as CEO and Founder is to absorb all of the insane parts of running a business so my team can focus on building, learning and enjoying their jobs." This is spot on. I would extend to senior leadership in general.

Alas, some seem to be more interested in making sure everyone knows who's in charge and who's a peon in their little fiefdom.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#26

Post by froindt » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:43 PM UTC

socalnate1 wrote: post #3

Two quick thoughts on this. 1) The amount of transparency that this company shows is insane. I have a hard time imagining any one else in this situation sharing the way they do. I hope it works out for them long term. 2) The due diligence work they did for this deal was absolutely not a waste (even if they never sell the company). Having gone through this process once will make it orders of magnitude easier if they s…

> Even if they don't sell, the process would have shown light on potential liabilities and issues they hadn't even been thinking about.

If I recall correctly, some VC's make their companies put together quarterly reports of similar nature to a normal publicly traded company. It sounds like it would have similar value.

Doing so requires significant thought and focus, and provides a structure and cadence to the business.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#27

Post by cletus » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:44 PM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #16

athiercelin wrote: post #4

"In many ways, I feel like my job as CEO and Founder is to absorb all of the insane parts of running a business so my team can focus on building, learning and enjoying their jobs." This is spot on. I would extend to senior leadership in general.

One way I've heard the role of product manager described as is a "shit umbrella".

This is applied to managers in general:

- Good managers are shit umbrellas

- Bad managers are shit funnels

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#28

Post by trhway » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:45 PM UTC

bcrosby95 wrote: post #16

athiercelin wrote: post #4

"In many ways, I feel like my job as CEO and Founder is to absorb all of the insane parts of running a business so my team can focus on building, learning and enjoying their jobs." This is spot on. I would extend to senior leadership in general.

One way I've heard the role of product manager described as is a "shit umbrella".

such good PM/managers/leaders are very rare. Instead it is usually this way https://cheezburger.com/4626943488/corporate-ladder , just with even more levels in real life and resulting amplification of the signal.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#29

Post by aidos » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:46 PM UTC

LeifCarrotson wrote: post #11

jacquesm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The typical terms sheet has an 'out' in that any surprises during DD are grounds for annulment without compensation.

Similar to a home purchase...and I imagine that even with an immaculate company or home you can always find something to satisfy that clause and give you an out.

Unless you’re in England, where people can drop out or change their price on a house sale or purchase at any time, even after months of legal red tape.

Re: I almost sold Baremetrics for $5M

#30

Post by hinkley » Fri, Jan 10, 2020, 7:47 PM UTC

meritt wrote: post #14

It's not uncommon for potential acquirers to feign interest in a purchase so they can derail your business for months while your competition (their actual investments) pull ahead.

I recall going to man a booth at a trade show, and being warned about VCs and VC-wannabes just asking a lot of questions of everybody. They aren't interested at all in your product, they're (only) interested in you as a member of the tech community.

They go around collecting data points to get a gestalt of current and future trends. I recall talking to at least two people who asked a lot of very general questions after segueing away from our product.