Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit • Hacker News Board

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#21

Post by senoff » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 2:13 AM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #13

ivankirigin wrote: post #3

The author doesn't know the price. The acquisition price wasn't announced but you can bet it was for close to, if not more than, $1 billion

Ooh, let me put on my reporter hat: is there a publicly traded company involved? Yes? Then there should be copious disclosures getting made here. Let's see, bought out by Recruit, that should have made the papers today here... http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20120926-00000021-jij-int This is a blurb about Recruit (a Japanese company) making the acquisition, sourced to a NYT filing with the SEC. The NYT is a shareho…

Excellent due diligence. If you just take the revenues and expenses and project them out a bit it's not hard to see $1B in value.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#22

Post by senoff » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 2:14 AM UTC

hack_edu wrote: post #2

Wow! Of all acquisitions to come out lately, this makes me most happy. Who needs seed money when you have the best product out there. Congrats to Indeed and their whole team.

This is true but it also means you have to be prepared to finance yourself for quite some time. Not everyone can do that. Also, by the time these guys took money they did it to get experience, connections and sponsorship.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#23

Post by gojomo » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 6:25 AM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #6

ecaron wrote: post #5

Bootstrapping (adj): a self-sustaining process that proceeds without external help. Not bootstrapping: $5M in VC. There is no "partially bootstrapped," you either are or aren't. Can somebody update the headline?

"They had bootstrapped the company, launched the service, and were well on their way. They didn't need our money. But eventually we convinced them to take it," USV's Fred Wilson writes. Looks like the headline is based on this quote. Still doesn't make them bootstrapped, but it does seem like the $5M was just a safety net, not a requirement.

I believe eBay was a similar situation: they took ~$7mil venture money in 1997 but never actually needed it.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#24

Post by SeoxyS » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 7:36 AM UTC

This is some really sloppy headline-writing right here. Not only is the company not bootstrapped, but in the context of job search, it seems to imply that Monster (the job listing website) was a party to the deal.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#25

Post by rexreed » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 7:39 AM UTC

Since when does taking $5M in VC mean bootstrapped? Well, judging from the comments, it seems that many perceive bootstrapping only applies to the early stages of the company. But I find that hard to stomach as someone who is also bootstrapping a company. When you bootstrap, you use your own revenues to finance growth. Getting investors is an alternative to that strategy. I don't see how you can both bootstrap AND have investors.

Looking at it differently, maybe they didn't need the capital, but they took it. You don't just accidentally get $5M from Union Square... term sheets happen. Lawyers are involved. Cap tables are adjusted. That doesn't happen when you bootstrap. It happens when you use other people's money to finance growth. AKA not bootstrapping.

That being said, it seems they did this particularly intelligently and Union Square was a fabulous choice for everyone involved.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#26

Post by rexreed » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 7:47 AM UTC

SeoxyS wrote: post #24

This is some really sloppy headline-writing right here. Not only is the company not bootstrapped, but in the context of job search, it seems to imply that Monster (the job listing website) was a party to the deal.

Agreed - I thought that Monster was the acquirer or somehow Monster was involved.

Re: Indeed, An Almost Entirely Bootstrapped Job Search Giant, Gets A Monster Exit

#27

Post by dsolomon » Wed, Sep 26, 2012, 5:14 PM UTC

davidwparker wrote: post #10

vonmoltke wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"They had bootstrapped the company, launched the service, and were well on their way. They didn't need our money. But eventually we convinced them to take it," USV's Fred Wilson writes. Looks like the headline is based on this quote. Still doesn't make them bootstrapped, but it does seem like the $5M was just a safety net, not a requirement.

I disagree. Take GitHub for example. They just raised $100M in VC. That doesn't take away from the fact that they bootstrapped from April 2008 until July 2012. Not bootstrapping is taking early Angel/VC funding in order to run the company.

$100M for a SourceForge clone with prettier colors? OMG.