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Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

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Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#31

Post by sama »

kareemm wrote: post #28
sama wrote: post #13

Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!

On the spectrum of 1 (abysmal failure) to 10 (raging success), where do you place Loopt?

obviously it's not going to go down as a massive success (although i hope what we do at green dot does!) but i feel pretty good about it. it's hard for me to put a number on it, though.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#33

Post by sgrove »

sama wrote: post #13

Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!

Any chance we'll see a retrospection? You've been building Loopt for 7 years - I'd love to hear how you managed team morale, the high points, the lows, etc. There's bound to be some amazing stuff.

And congratulations, I'm personally excited to see where you go with this.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#34

Post by sama »

sgrove wrote: post #33
sama wrote: post #13

Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!

Any chance we'll see a retrospection? You've been building Loopt for 7 years - I'd love to hear how you managed team morale, the high points, the lows, etc. There's bound to be some amazing stuff. And congratulations, I'm personally excited to see where you go with this.

yes when the dust settles.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#35

Post by kareemm »

sama wrote: post #31
kareemm wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the spectrum of 1 (abysmal failure) to 10 (raging success), where do you place Loopt?

obviously it's not going to go down as a massive success (although i hope what we do at green dot does!) but i feel pretty good about it. it's hard for me to put a number on it, though.

Thanks. I'm sure the lessons you learned will be applicable to whatever you do next. You could do a hell of a lot worse than having a $40M+ exit the first time around, even if you raised $17M.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#37

Post by wilschroter »

I get so annoyed when I see people pick apart an acquisition. I saw this same behavior for Gowalla, and then Mint before it. "They didn't make any money. They sold too early." They remind me of people that would be sitting at the finish line of a marathon telling the last people to cross "Boy, your time really sucked."

If you are one of the few entrepreneurs that has come far along enough to get to a sale - for any amount - I just flat out applaud you.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#38

Post by sama »

edw519 wrote: post #36
sama wrote: post #13

Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!

If the 2005 instance of sama knew what the 2012 instance of sama knows now, what would he have done differently?

that is a very long and hopefully interesting post i am still gathering my thoughts on.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#39

Post by sama »

wilschroter wrote: post #37

I get so annoyed when I see people pick apart an acquisition. I saw this same behavior for Gowalla, and then Mint before it. "They didn't make any money. They sold too early." They remind me of people that would be sitting at the finish line of a marathon telling the last people to cross "Boy, your time really sucked." If you are one of the few entrepreneurs that has come far along enough to get to a sale - for any a…

Thank you. It's a bummer to be so excited for something I've worked hard for and then read haters hating all over the internet. This brightened up my day; hope we meet in person some day so I can properly say thanks.

Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash

#40

Post by adamtmca »

alapshah wrote: post #9

In case anyone is missing what has happened here, this is why people hate on private equity/VC. As far as I can tell, Loopt wasn't doing very well. http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=... They had an attempt to revive the company to compete with Groupon last year that many here thought was stupid and died an early death ( http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2696412 ) Michael Moritz (Sequoia partne…

Planet Money also did a follow up on one of Bain's deals that went right. TL;DR Bain bought a company, levered it up, restructured it and successfully took it public.

The company executives all got bonuses, Bain made a ton of money and the workers got to keep their jobs. The company is still running today.

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