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Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

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Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#201

Post by 9rx »

criddell wrote: post #110
sky2224 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's almost analogous to having a video game totally completed for you in a way. Everything is "done" for you essentially since you just buy your way out of problems at that point. Before coming into that amount of money, you can be distracted by the survival aspects of living in society where you're just trying to make money and live comfortably. There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want ou…

> There isn't any necessity to have to figure out what you truly want out of life or what your passions are. I most certainly don't have life figured out and I'm not particularly passionate about much but I do know as a 54 year old, I'm on the downward side of this mountain and there's so many things that are interesting to me. I'd love nothing more than to be a full time dilettante, living my life quarter-by-quarter…

> isn't the typical person interested in lots of stuff

They might be, but is the typical person interested in doing it alone? Everyone else still has their lives getting in the way. They can't realistically skip going to work because you want to spend time with them. While some people are comfortable exploring life by themselves, I suspect the typical person is not.

You could use that newfound wealth to buy friends, but then you're effectively back to managing a business again, assuming business is the source of money per the grander discussion here. If that is what drives you, you are apt to do everything you can to avoid the exit in the first place and thus not ending up in this situation. Like Zuckerberg once said, if he sold Facebook he would focus on building another tech company and therefore there is no point in selling the one he already has.

Even still, if you do go down that road, and you want people of quality rather than grifters trying to scam you, to fill that role you are going to need some semblance of marketable goals for them to get behind. "Played friend for Richie Rich" doesn't advance their career or look good on a resume. They don't have the luxury of not having to worry about that kind of thing. Now you are truly back where you started, which, again, questions why walk away in the first place?

It might not be impossible to find something to keep you going, but it is easy to see how it could be really hard.

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#202

Post by paraschopra »

nexarithm wrote: post #21

Are you planning to write blog post of the journey? It is always joyful to read about process and details about such acquisitions. I remember couple shared in HN and got lots of interest such as waze. Congratulations!

What would you like to know about the process?

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#204

Post by paraschopra »

ulf-77723 wrote: post #52

Congrats! What have been your highest highs and lowest lows during this journey? When Google discontinued their A/B Testing tool - was it surprising for you? How has the CRO landscape changed out of your perspective in the last 15 years? 1st party tracking, serverside testing, etc.

I think the low was covid - with budget cuts, we had a sudden revenue drop and didn't know when or whether it will recover at all. But thankfully as we had been profitable from day 1, we didn't lay off anyone.

The high is every time we launched a new feature that set the industry standard. (For example, integrating heatmaps into A/B tests and migration from frequentist to bayesian statistics).

Another high has always been our annual international trips - we had been taking our entire company to a vacation every year. As a company, Wingify team has vacationed together in Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Dubai, Nepal, and Goa. Most recently, ~400 people partied together on a boat in Bangkok, and it was a high!

Yes, Google discontinuing their A/B testing tool was a surprise (but a pleasant one obviously).

CRO over the last 15 years has shifted in maturity. It started with testing red v/s green buttons in 2010 but now it is a full blown science with observations, hypothesis, prioritisation, experimentation and personalization!

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#206

Post by richardfeynman »

jacob_rezi wrote: post #175
richardfeynman wrote: post #153

@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

thanks for this kind offer, but i'm working on something else.

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#207

Post by shostack »

richardfeynman wrote: post #153

@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.

As a fellow marketer I've totally done similar stuff to send messages to whomever is digging through their utms.

More usefully though, you can learn a shocking amount about a company from their utms and event data.

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#208

Post by paraschopra »

duxup wrote: post #7

Congratulations. I'm curious... what do people do after something like this? Vacation?

Well, I posted a thank you note on HN and went to sleep!

I was financially independent even before this sale (benefit of running a bootstrapped company is that it _has_ to be profitable). Moreover, I had been gradually reducing my operational involvement in the company for years by grooming the team.

So, day to day, not much changes.

But I do have a nice chunk to do crazy-ass experiments in future, which I fully intend to do.

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#209

Post by paraschopra »

soheil wrote: post #102
duxup wrote: post #7

Congratulations. I'm curious... what do people do after something like this? Vacation?

Typically PE deals require the founders to very much stay involved in the daily operations of the business unless they are near retirement age and that is the primary motive they are selling in the first place.

I'll be involved as a director on the board, but won't have operational involvement.

Re: Thank HN: My bootstrapped startup got acquired today

#210

Post by paraschopra »

sedatk wrote: post #114

Congrats! Was the "Show HN" feedback useful, and did it affect how you developed the product?

Yes, yes, so much yes.

Without the feedback, this wouldn't have happened.

I've learned that what kills startups isn't so much a bad product, but lack of feedback. You can iterate your way out of a valley if you know which way is up.

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