Sprinklr Acquires GetSatisfaction, Founders Get Nothing

Post by codinghorror » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 2:16 AM UTC

gojomo wrote: post #46

SwellJoe wrote: post #42

I have very limited knowledge of this situation, but, I'm gonna pile on anyway: With that kind of money raised, the founders didn't get "nothing". They got a salary, probably a decent one, for however long they were running the thing. Which is more than many startup founders get out of businesses that fail. If they don't have personal debt, or didn't lose relationships or friendships, they came out ahead of many star…

We'll see! The founders of GetSatisfaction weren't spring chickens, unaware of the costs-of-capital raised. But sometimes later management and investors do engage in shenanigans. Some will remember Naval Ravikant et al's suit against a cofounder and VCs back in 2005: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/26/technology/26iht-dotcom.ht... http://venturebeat.com/2005/12/09/epinions-settlement-a-blac... Though I'm not sure it's…

Post by EpicEng » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 2:28 AM UTC

tomglindmeier wrote: post #22

prostoalex wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Almost any significant round outside of seed would come with liquidation preference. CrunchBase says a total of $20.9 was raised, so if the final sale price was less then $20,900,001.00, there's likely no money left for common stock.

Interesting. I didn't know that. I understand that if expectations are not met there have to be consequences. But leaving the founders of a company with nothing while others earning money feels completely wrong.

Post by x0x0 » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 2:30 AM UTC

pkaye wrote: post #40

reustle wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He also has a relevant tweet deeper in the thread > Taking VC is like getting the world’s worst boss: Shitload of opinions, undue level of influence, never actually shows up for work. https://twitter.com/monstro/status/587413328055635968

Looks like he is really bitter from this whole deal. Meanwhile there are 100s of start-ups taking on VCs with Ycombinator.

Post by x0x0 » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 2:34 AM UTC

moe wrote: post #60

mattmanser wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I seem to remember at the time there was about 1/2 year - year where Google loved them and you'd get a Get Satisfaction result for googling "[company name] support". GS were HN darlings for a little bit, then started getting annoying because you'd land on this pointless page, then 37signals (rightfully) publicly called them out, then google seemed to delist them in a panda or something and then everyone forgot about…

then google seemed to delist them in a panda And rightfully so. They were a pest, just like the spam-site by that Calamaris guy from Netscape around the same time. Lesson learned: If you depend on search traffic then don't be obnoxious. Otherwise nobody will speak up for you when Google snaps your neck. Hey Google, why is Quora (expert-sexchange 2.0) still polluting my search results anyway?

Post by bduerst » Mon, Apr 13, 2015, 2:36 AM UTC

codinghorror wrote: post #62

moe wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

then google seemed to delist them in a panda And rightfully so. They were a pest, just like the spam-site by that Calamaris guy from Netscape around the same time. Lesson learned: If you depend on search traffic then don't be obnoxious. Otherwise nobody will speak up for you when Google snaps your neck. Hey Google, why is Quora (expert-sexchange 2.0) still polluting my search results anyway?

Could be worse, could be a Yahoo Answers result.