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Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

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Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#81

Post by [deleted] »

redshirtrob wrote: post #77
deedub wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm kinda curious about your >$100k loss on your stock. Your strike price from pre series A options was more than the gains on a near $600 million sale price? Maybe I am misunderstanding, but how is that possible?

Probably the op spent $100k to exercise the options. It's likely this deal will wipe out all common shareholders and only the VCs will get anything. That's a $100k loss. The op will be spending the next decade writing this loss off against capital gains and earned income. I've been there.

[deleted]

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#82

Post by BurntBunting »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #78
richardfeynman wrote: post #19

I worked at Optimizely from before its series A in 2012 until the end of 2016, so I have a unique perspective on this. For most of the time when I worked at Optimizely, the company was all the rage. It appeared at the top of most "hot startup" lists, the Glassdoor reviews were 5/5, revenue was skyrocketing, and for a period in 2014 it became the fourth most valuable YCombinator company (after Stripe, AirBnB, and Drop…

I worked there in 2013. I very specifically remember getting a speech about how if we didn't believe that the company would be worth more than google, we should quit. Seems like that may have been a better option for a lot of folks.

Was that the one where Dan told people that they were traitors for wanting more cash instead of stock, not super long after some of them cashed out some of their equity?

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#83

Post by [deleted] »

[deleted] wrote: post #81
redshirtrob wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the op spent $100k to exercise the options. It's likely this deal will wipe out all common shareholders and only the VCs will get anything. That's a $100k loss. The op will be spending the next decade writing this loss off against capital gains and earned income. I've been there.

[deleted]

[deleted]

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#84

Post by staysaasy »

tptacek wrote: post #60
richardfeynman wrote: post #19

I worked at Optimizely from before its series A in 2012 until the end of 2016, so I have a unique perspective on this. For most of the time when I worked at Optimizely, the company was all the rage. It appeared at the top of most "hot startup" lists, the Glassdoor reviews were 5/5, revenue was skyrocketing, and for a period in 2014 it became the fourth most valuable YCombinator company (after Stripe, AirBnB, and Drop…

I have a sort of general question about this narrative, which seems to apply to lots of startups that begin as self-service, developer-focused projects and end in enterprise hell. Is it not the case that these startups begin developer-facing, get market traction, are lavishly funded, and then discover that the self-service offering they've built simply can't satisfy the projections they've made to justify their valua…

I think that this is a great question that isn't asked nearly enough. There are all sorts of stories about companies moving up market successfully, but I'd love to see more written about the cases where it's attempted and failed. The DNA of enterprise vs SMB SaaS is really different.

For what it's worth, I would guess that had Optimizely not pivoted to the enterprise they would indeed be smaller, but more importantly would have had a slower growth rate at least at that point in time. In an industry obsessed with high growth rates that's the kiss of death and I imagine the reason behind their pivot. But that's just my guess.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#85

Post by redshirtrob »

gkop wrote: post #79
redshirtrob wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably the op spent $100k to exercise the options. It's likely this deal will wipe out all common shareholders and only the VCs will get anything. That's a $100k loss. The op will be spending the next decade writing this loss off against capital gains and earned income. I've been there.

Can you write off just the exercise price or the fair market value at time of exercise?

That's a really good question. I'm not certain of the answer.

When I had this happen to me the FMV was slightly higher than my exercise price, but not enough to trigger AMT. I know I only wrote off the actual cash I lost, and I used a CPA to help me make sure I did it correctly.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#86

Post by redshirtrob »

ryguytilidie wrote: post #78
richardfeynman wrote: post #19

I worked at Optimizely from before its series A in 2012 until the end of 2016, so I have a unique perspective on this. For most of the time when I worked at Optimizely, the company was all the rage. It appeared at the top of most "hot startup" lists, the Glassdoor reviews were 5/5, revenue was skyrocketing, and for a period in 2014 it became the fourth most valuable YCombinator company (after Stripe, AirBnB, and Drop…

I worked there in 2013. I very specifically remember getting a speech about how if we didn't believe that the company would be worth more than google, we should quit. Seems like that may have been a better option for a lot of folks.

Wow, I was interviewing there in 2013. I was interviewing for a fairly senior engineering position.

When they sent me the details for the on-site they sent me a role two levels lower. When I asked about it I was told the Director of Engineering felt that was a suitable role.

I withdrew from the process at that point. I was pretty bummed as I was super high on Optimizely back then. But I knew enough about myself to know that wasn't a good way to start a job (assuming I got an offer).

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#87

Post by codezero »

richardfeynman wrote: post #19

I worked at Optimizely from before its series A in 2012 until the end of 2016, so I have a unique perspective on this. For most of the time when I worked at Optimizely, the company was all the rage. It appeared at the top of most "hot startup" lists, the Glassdoor reviews were 5/5, revenue was skyrocketing, and for a period in 2014 it became the fourth most valuable YCombinator company (after Stripe, AirBnB, and Drop…

That's really interesting. I work along side Optimizely in the analytics field and I remember that moment - I used to email into support@ to ask about stuff to help improve data across our platforms, and always had no problem. Almost over night the email support was shut off (in support of optiverse + partners, a route I totally get when you're trying to move upmarket) but it felt really forced, really fast and I think they could have done a better job ramping up enterprise without slamming all the self-serve and free customers.

My company is going through a similar phase of trying to move more up market, and I'm glad we've tried to keep the free/self-serve tiers explicitly because we think they build good mindshare.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#88

Post by joecasson »

roasm wrote: post #14
jakemcgraw wrote: post #6

Just kicked the tires on Optimizely for a site with less than a million MAU. They wanted $50K upfront for one year. No monthly or quarterly billing available. Went with Google Optimize instead, works fine for free. In the face of that, very surprised Optimizely doesn't do month to month to get folks started.

They used to, but they ended it a few years ago. They consciously moved higher market, higher touch, higher cost. Ultimately, i believe they got squeezed between smaller companies using free or cheaper offerings and larger companies probably building it themselves.

I worked there for 5 years. This is the correct take.

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#89

Post by joecasson »

mh- wrote: post #52
dsiroker wrote: post #31

(co-founder of Optimizely here) HUGE thank you to YC and the entire HN community for all their support over the years. It was almost ten years ago that we launched here on HN. [1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1788634

thanks for an amazing culture and experience at Optimizely, Dan.

Ditto!

Re: Optimizely to be acquired by Episerver

#90

Post by smallgovt »

richardfeynman wrote: post #19

I worked at Optimizely from before its series A in 2012 until the end of 2016, so I have a unique perspective on this. For most of the time when I worked at Optimizely, the company was all the rage. It appeared at the top of most "hot startup" lists, the Glassdoor reviews were 5/5, revenue was skyrocketing, and for a period in 2014 it became the fourth most valuable YCombinator company (after Stripe, AirBnB, and Drop…

> The Episerver acquisition is indeed a bad exit, and I think I will lose >$100k in stock I exercised

Based on what information? So far, all that's been publicly confirmed is that the sale price was below $600M, which presumably leaves opportunity for your shares to be worth something.

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