141–150 of 209 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He was back at HQ, and we were watching remotely. But the effect was the same.
Still - how would you feel as an employee of the acquiring company? Especially knowing that the newly-acquired employees are listening in? At best, awkward. It's just complete verbal diarrhea and he should retract it (though the damage is mostly already done).
Love to tell my horror story re: my experience dealing with a Fortune 50 company. Under a NDA til May. We are an east coast start-up and two months into creating our tech/product a large entity in the valley found out about us. This big name invited us out and talked about buying us. Well we have zero strong connections to such people like Paul Graham, but we did reach out to our network. They said, "I don't know if…
Please name and shame when the NDA expires. Preferably with the name of the not so nice bigwig.
We are technologists who have a history of creating innovation that gets noticed & or a novel idea we published in 2007 has gone onto have million of users after being copied 100 or more times.
Our weak point is networking and overall connecting with people & getting the right people behind us! It's so frustrating.....
Love to tell my horror story re: my experience dealing with a Fortune 50 company. Under a NDA til May. We are an east coast start-up and two months into creating our tech/product a large entity in the valley found out about us. This big name invited us out and talked about buying us. Well we have zero strong connections to such people like Paul Graham, but we did reach out to our network. They said, "I don't know if…
Turn this around, and see it from the "big wig"'s angle. They get in some guys (you) who obviously have not been around the block a few times already. More importantly, there is no attorney present and no way after the meeting to establish who said what, when, to who, in what setting.
His upside to screw you nine ways to Sunday is a big bonus. Where's his downside? Simple: none.
You cannot even name and shame as someone else suggested. Retain an attorney to properly advise you before you put names up here post-May.
Chances are the "big wigs" you met were not C-level, nor the level of management below that. If my guess there is correct, then you were not really dealing with "big wigs"; you likely were dealing with essentially middle management. The closer to middle management you get, the more prevalent this cutthroat behavior comes out. I could post a wall of text on why I personally have found this to be the case in my anecdata experience, but this response is getting long in the tooth already. At Fortune 50 levels, if you are meeting with C-level or direct reports to C-levels, there might be some mitigating factors that makes them more trustworthy, but again, I don't have the time to get into that here.
Suffice to say, when these impressive-sounding Names start dropping by, you need someone with the sales experience to qualify the opportunity. There are ways to generally suss out how serious they are about vetting your team/tech/org, mostly in the vein of making them come to you. Most middle management won't have the budgetary clout to spend anywhere close to what a Big Name will really spend (easily 5 figures and up, or an equivalent amount of staff time and expenses) doing just due diligence evaluation.
Love to tell my horror story re: my experience dealing with a Fortune 50 company. Under a NDA til May. We are an east coast start-up and two months into creating our tech/product a large entity in the valley found out about us. This big name invited us out and talked about buying us. Well we have zero strong connections to such people like Paul Graham, but we did reach out to our network. They said, "I don't know if…
As much as HN likes to hate on patents, this is a huge reason why startups should file some if you have some technology worth protecting. Most probably they won't be enough to save you anyway, but it may be better than having no recourse at all.
Love to tell my horror story re: my experience dealing with a Fortune 50 company. Under a NDA til May. We are an east coast start-up and two months into creating our tech/product a large entity in the valley found out about us. This big name invited us out and talked about buying us. Well we have zero strong connections to such people like Paul Graham, but we did reach out to our network. They said, "I don't know if…
Yes, this is normal. Turn this around, and see it from the "big wig"'s angle. They get in some guys (you) who obviously have not been around the block a few times already. More importantly, there is no attorney present and no way after the meeting to establish who said what, when, to who, in what setting. His upside to screw you nine ways to Sunday is a big bonus. Where's his downside? Simple: none. You cannot even n…
Also, what do I have to lose in naming and shaming them when we may just as well open source our work when we tell our story.
I'm tired of being stepped on and not being able to get the right people behind & helping us!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Their boss didn't say this - it's purely a negotiating tactic.
That's even more reason to go directly to the boss (or someone even higher up). Lowballing is one thing, but outright lying should be unacceptable for any kind of business deal. I did catch one of my customers lying to me - he claimed he couldn't afford the normal fee (which was only a few hundred bucks, or $1000 at most), and I later discovered he had millions of dollars in funding for this project. We had a big blo…
Love to tell my horror story re: my experience dealing with a Fortune 50 company. Under a NDA til May. We are an east coast start-up and two months into creating our tech/product a large entity in the valley found out about us. This big name invited us out and talked about buying us. Well we have zero strong connections to such people like Paul Graham, but we did reach out to our network. They said, "I don't know if…
This is unfortunately more common than many people think. I worked for a startup that had gone through something similar, though perhaps not as egregious. The patents were the only thing that (barely) saved it. As much as HN likes to hate on patents, this is a huge reason why startups should file some if you have some technology worth protecting. Most probably they won't be enough to save you anyway, but it may be be…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, this is normal. Turn this around, and see it from the "big wig"'s angle. They get in some guys (you) who obviously have not been around the block a few times already. More importantly, there is no attorney present and no way after the meeting to establish who said what, when, to who, in what setting. His upside to screw you nine ways to Sunday is a big bonus. Where's his downside? Simple: none. You cannot even n…
Ummm, no these two people report directly to a fairly well known name in tech. Also, what do I have to lose in naming and shaming them when we may just as well open source our work when we tell our story. I'm tired of being stepped on and not being able to get the right people behind & helping us!
I think the more important advice is: If you do talk to corp dev, insist on a breakup fee upfront, payable if no minimum price has been offered: "We can talk but I am looking for at least $xxx million and will need $xxxK / $x million if you walk away during or after due diligence, to compensate for my time." It's only without a breakup fee that Corp Dev can smoke you out...
This is unrealistic. There are many startups that are worthless (product is terribly architected, teams don't get along, they cannot track their customers revenue, etc.). A company cannot be expected to offer money for something without some minimum level of due diligence. again, if you absolutely are not selling, then say that and move on.
Until you get your exit cash-in-bank-in-your-account, those Big Names are your competitors or potential competitors. The breakup fee is to compensate you for sharing more than just product name, price, and terms with them. Simply enthusing a little bit beyond "business for me is going great!" to a potential competitor who is in a related space can be sufficient market information for them to convince them to enter your space.
There is a lot of emphasis on people sharing tech/trade secrets, but keep in mind that simply confirming that users get excited by what you are doing in your space is information that these Corp. Dev. folks would dearly like to have. Never be afraid to say "no" to a one-sided deal.
Look at it this way: most Big Name Corp. Dev. won't even get out of bed for any deal less than an accretive $5-10M+ annual cash flow, and something that pencils out to much, much bigger than that 3-5+ years forward. If they are absolutely serious about acquiring, then they will start talking numbers soon after the NDA counter-signatures are exchanged, because no one wants to lose nearly guaranteed accretive income/revenue/users/etc.
If they are shopping you and your direct competitors to see if someone is naive enough to talk without compensation or willing to sell out for a relatively low number, then you see this behavior we're talking about in this thread. Whether or not you want to participate depends upon your personal exit parameters. This thread points out that everyone who might be in touch with these Corp. Dev. folks should already have some numbers in mind already, and a way to qualify the serious ones.
Acquirers can be surprisingly indecisive about acquisitions, and their flakiness is indistinguishable from dishonesty There's some hidden gold right there. Non-malicious business as usual can be just as damaging to you as if they had actively tried to screw you over. Expect it and don't become angry or take it personally.
On a smaller scale, this can be true for hiring decisions too.