(Co-founder of Optimizely here) Congrats! It was fun competing with you
Why "was"?
Optimizely also sold to private equity many years ago. Presumably the founderts aren't there any more.
Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
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Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#182Congrats on the exit, but PE is going to saddle the company with unnecessary debt, extract as much value it can, charge “consulting fees”, then strip it for parts in bankruptcy.
Customers are going to feel the squeeze in 1-2 years.
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#183Congratulations! Just curious, usually being purchased by a Private Equity firm spells a death knell for the company. Of course at the right price it makes sense that you wanted to sell it away, but what are your thoughts about what will happen to the company now?
Stylistic note: "knell" is a word for a sound, like the ringing of a solemn type of bell. So something can't be said to "spell a death knell".
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/death-kn...
This page has a couple examples that use the phrasing “spelling” a death knell:
> If it does, it almost spells the death knell of a great number of football clubs throught the country.
> Indeed, it may spell the death knell of the other place.
If it sounds strange in US English, could it be a way of wording that’s more common in UK English?
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#184This is a big achievement. Used the tool along against Hotjar and the likes and loved VWO.
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#185Congrats Paras, I remember when I first found out about VWO in 2012.
An amazing outcome and a testament to you and the value of staying the course over 15 years!
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#186Congratulations. I'm curious... what do people do after something like this? Vacation?
I bought a steel bike, grabbed my hammock, and went on a 4 day 250 mile solo adventure through the Texas hill country. Riding through empty valleys at sunset with a herd of deer pacing alongisde me was enough to break me into tears. It's what I needed to move on.
Did you read Caro's books on Lyndon Johnson yet? If you have not, stop what you are doing and read them, especially the first two. He spends a lot of time talking about Hill Country. I suspect you will find them very interesting having spent so much time there.
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#187congrats
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#188@paras - I worked at Optimizely in the early days and led online marketing there from 2012 - 2016. I remember seeing your team copy our SEM strategy, so I added Hindu gods (shiva, vishnu, et al) to the UTM query params in our ads for your guys to dissect / get a laugh from. Congrats on the exit. really nice to see.
wanna join Rezi? we dont have a marketing team but get 4K signups a day
Friendly heads up that some thumbnail in your landing page are not loading. Specifically the ones that link to the sample resumes for a given title. The one for CTO and the one for compliance coordinator failed to load.
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#189Congratulations. I'm curious... what do people do after something like this? Vacation?
I had this 25 years ago when I was 25; the amount was lower but it was enough to never do anything ever again. I went hiking, got 1 billion ideas during walking for new companies and products, so started making some of them. Still am.
please share if there is something you can show to public.
Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I met someone who was an early employee at King about a year after they were acquired for 5.9b - it’s a little different since he wasn’t involved with the sale, but he was still processing the insane amount of money he had Is there a word missing in this? How did they join after acquisition and have a meaningful financial windfall? And being an early employee?
It's very ambiguously phrased in multiple ways because I don't edit my HN posts, but it is technically correct, just vague! He was one of the first employees at King, and I met him a year after King was acquired. The "they" in "after they were acquired" is ambiguous which I think led to your confusion.