Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!
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Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
41–50 of 135 posts
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#42I 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.
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Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not how it works since with later rounds you have both dilution and probably a liquidity preference The figures here work out almost exactly to Sequoia and NEA getting their 2x (they invested a combined $17M) and plus the employee pool (2 x $17M = $34M + $9.8M = $43.8 - the announced sale price was $43.4M) That is just me speculating, but I would be surprised if it isn't far off.
YC doesn't have any anti-dilution clauses in their terms? Surprising given their small stakes. All I've seen are the surface features of the YC deals, so I'm not up to speed on the specific terms they get.
Apparently not. But even if, they'd still have to buck up big time to maintain share.
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#44I 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.
Congrats Sam, it sounds like a good outcome, and I've always been impressed that you had the boldness to pursue a vision that involved working with carriers.
Ignore that haters - unfortunately Hacker News comments seem to have reverted to the mean (pun intended) as the site has grown.
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#45In 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…
Buddy exits like this one and the Hunch exit are very demoralising. They make startups look like some sort of game. As you indicated, Loopt was clearly dying ( http://www.google.com/insights/search/#q=loopt.com&cmpt=... ) and yet people still got rich off of it.
Product + Hype -> Big Exit is starting to seem like a perfectly legitimate business plan nowadays.
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#46I 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.
Hey man, haters gonna hate. You compressed more success in 7 years than 99.9 % of programmers will in 4+ decades in a cubicle. Kudos.
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#47Sam - Did Loopt ever make any profit, if so what area of the business turned out to be most profitable for you guys ?
(This is meant as a genuine question, not a snarky comment)
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#48I 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…
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Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#49In 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…
If the $17 million previously raised bought half or less of the outstanding equity, then the VCs (depending also on other preferences) might only have a claim on about ((43.4 total - 9.8 retention pool)*50%=) $16.8 million of the deal proceeds. So this might be a largely-sideways exit for the venture investors.
Still, many think location services can only pay off via connections with payments/coupons/promotions so the tie-up does make sense as more than just a favor between investment buddies.
Re: Loopt acquired by payment card provider for $43.3m in cash
#50Happy to answer any questions I'm able to. Looking forward to the great stuff we're going to do at Green Dot!
What has been your biggest mistake(s) so far?