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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

#71

Post by kogir »

Alex3917 wrote: post #67
kogir wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're essentially saying that trying to do Loopt at all was a mistake and we just should have done something else. Everyone seems to forget that before iPhone, and later Android, you had no choice but to partner with carriers - there was no other way to distribute your application. Even in Europe, where the phone ecosystem is different, access to location required carrier support, and nearly no handsets had the abil…

"You're essentially saying that trying to do Loopt at all was a mistake and we just should have done something else." Which is a perfectly valid option. Just because someone has an idea a good idea doesn't mean that it will make a good business. The cell phone software market pre-iPhone simply wasn't a good place to be starting a business, no matter what the idea.

While you're absolutely right, I don't think the OP realized that's what he was saying, or he would have written it. I was merely pointing this out.

There were successes though, even back then. It was a long shot, yes, but not a proven dead end.

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

#72

Post by budu3 »

sama wrote: post #39
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.

Congrats Sam! You have accomplished a lot.

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

#73

Post by schoudha »

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!

Sam, did you guys raise any additional money besides what's listed in Crunchbase? It says you guys were backed by Maverick capital as well?

Congrats on the sale!

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

#75

Post by rhizome »

randome3889 wrote: post #66
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…

You clearly don't understand VC or Private Equity very well. 15 mil is chump change for Sequoia. Sure they would rather not lose it but 43 million is not a "huge amount of cash" in the VC world. They probably just got back a 1x or 2x return and that is about it.

Which is why buddy exits are such a problem: there's so much money in the greater pool that they can hand out life-changing cash on a whim to people who might not deserve it as much as others. Sure, life isn't fair, but I'd rather people didn't pretend otherwise.

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

#76

Post by kenrikm »

I don't think that the team at Loopt deserves anything less than a huge amount of respect. They built something big and it did not work out, it happens. It's easy to sit and play armchair quarterback but I doubt anyone who has ever tried to make something big would chalk this up as a failure. No one one learns how do ride a bike without a few scrapes but eventually you do learn. I'm certain Sam and the team will know nothing but success if not in this venture than the next.

Good luck guys!

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

#77

Post by [deleted] »

kogir wrote: post #71
Alex3917 wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"You're essentially saying that trying to do Loopt at all was a mistake and we just should have done something else." Which is a perfectly valid option. Just because someone has an idea a good idea doesn't mean that it will make a good business. The cell phone software market pre-iPhone simply wasn't a good place to be starting a business, no matter what the idea.

While you're absolutely right, I don't think the OP realized that's what he was saying, or he would have written it. I was merely pointing this out. There were successes though, even back then. It was a long shot, yes, but not a proven dead end.

[deleted]

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

#78

Post by philwelch »

richcollins wrote: post #62
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

Next was profitable. OS X and iOS are Next. Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?

Profitable, but underwater. NeXT sold to Apple for half a billion when over a billion in funding had been pumped into it (let alone valuation).

NeXT alone was never going to do what Apple has done. Apple had a sustainable hardware business (after being fixed up a little with sexy designs) that gave them enough manufacturing leverage to do iPod, and iPod gave them enough operations leverage and economy-of-scale to do what they're doing now.

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

#79

Post by Alex3917 »

richcollins wrote: post #62
webwright wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think calling this a "buddy exit" isn't really fair. Same with Hunch. That's like calling Next selling to Apple a "buddy exit". If Square went south, what kind of exit could they command based on Jack and his team? If Facebook was dying, what would Zuck and his team be worth? Sam and Chris are both brilliant guys and great BRANDS. Not Steve Jobs great-- but great nonetheless. Guys like this attract A-players and at…

Next was profitable. OS X and iOS are Next. Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?

"Care to make a long bet on how much of Loopt tech is still around in 5 years?"

More of it than is around now. Location based apps are just getting started.

I think there is sort of a last mile problem for data, in the same way that there is a last mile problem for hardware. As much people come to see the world this way I think we will end up with more and more possibilities for local social than we can currently even imagine. I think this acquisition will be a good opportunity, as Loopt will effectively be able to use these financial tools as bait to get more people into their system.

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

#80

Post by kenrikm »

2pasc wrote: post #60

The sad truth about startup life and Silicon Valley is that many people become wealthy not because they created something meaningful with lots of customers or users or revenues, but because they get acquired and let die. This would be all fine if founders did not equate net worth with success and smarts. I admire Companies that get acquired and where the product continue to live on beyond the acquisition like PayPal,…

I think you're missing the point, If you're in this just to get wealthy there are many other professions that offer a much safer route to get there (Lawyer, Doctor) I don't think you just fall into being an entrepreneur for the money, otherwise you would give up when you're eating ramen noodles pulling 18 hour shifts for months on end without a return. Nope, I think to build a company you need something else driving you rather than the dream of wealth alone. From what I have seen it's clear that SamA has that drive or the company would not have made it as far as it did.
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