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How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

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Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#91

Post by joshu »

jayro wrote: post #73
jonknee wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Josh's point was to not wait for them to fly you out, but to fly out yourself. As rokhayakebe noted, say you'll be in town in two weeks and set up a meeting. Perhaps Google has streamlined the process to fly you out, but it still isn't as easy as "Great, check in at the front desk on Wednesday at 2PM". If meeting is a much bigger deal to you than who you're meeting with you need to do what you can to make it…

I do agree with Josh's advice (not that I considered anything like that at the time), but just to clarify, Jonathan was in New York with the rest of the Google Spreadsheet team, was due to fly somewhere else (I think it may have been Europe) and felt it was important to meet at the Googleplex in Mountain View with the Writely team. I don't think I could have showed up in Mountain View without him being there since he…

People want to see a sufficient level of excitement. Maybe you should have headed to New York.

I blew a deal like this once, myself. When I was in NYC, a big SV fund wanted to invest in Delicious, but I didn't bother to get on a plane and go visit them after several hits; I just kinda expected them to send me a term sheet without ever meeting me! Pretty stupid. Luckily I later met Fred and company.

PS It's Joshua, not Josh

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#92

Post by patio11 »

There was a no-holds-barred discussion of the realities of being acquired by s soulless megacorp at Business of Software 2010, by Eric Sink, who sold a product to MS. He had a similar hot cold hot cold reception, and the deal was totally dead twice, prior to it working out. It appears to be the nature of the beast.

If BOS publishes the video of that, I'll post it -- it was one of the most eyeopening talks at the conference for me (and that is saying something, since they were virtually without exception outstanding).

P.S. Google is a soulless megacorp with above average PR.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#93

Post by rdl »

jlees wrote: post #72
tptacek wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Telling your counterparty that you're about to get on a plane to meet them is one way to qualify a deal: they may tell you not to. A bizdev friend of mine taught me another: reschedule a call to a Saturday (make up a reason). If it's a serious deal... like, "you're going to be Powerpoint in our office suite"... they'll bitch, but do it. Sometimes these things are about followup, but a lot of times they're really abou…

Telling your counterparty that you're about to get on a plane to meet them is one way to qualify a deal: they may tell you not to. Ah, again we see the parallels with dating? (I did very nearly do this once.)

The trick is often to not make it a choice.

"I'll be in town after visiting a customer on Friday, can we get together?" is much more likely to have a positive response than "should I fly out to meet with you on Friday?". If the meeting is very important to you (high EV, even if maybe low odds?), it's sometimes worth not making it clear how important.

In other cases, being willing to make what seem like big sacrifices (getting a plane the next hour, changing your flight plans, driving cross-country, etc.) will help your case, if known.

The parallels with dating are very apparent.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#94

Post by sundars »

trickjarrett wrote: post #3

A great read about politeness (though it had some negotiating impacts) causing a missed opportunity. I too err on the side of politeness when it comes to business interactions and I've learned that more often than not, when I'm dealing with someone remotely whether it be a colleague or a point of contact, that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. I think it was a mistake to let it ride for so long. A few weeks, maybe two…

sending regular (say once in 2-3 weeks) updates about the company could be a good way of staying on the radar

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#96

Post by sundars »

grellas wrote: post #32

Prospective acquirers will often pursue potential targets simultaneously and, if they go silent on you, this may have little or nothing to do with whether you followed up diligently or not. In my experience, when an acquiring company wants to move, they know how to do so quickly, at least to engage in sufficient due diligence to see whether they might want to do the deal. Thus, when you do get in a situation where yo…

It does look like apart from building a great product in an exciting space Jay may not have done a bunch of things required for making an acquisition happen. Things like being on the radar of a clearly articulated internal champion in the acquiring company, getting multiple outside sources to recommend the acquisition, getting all the stakeholders on board and committed, getting personal and professional growth arrows of stakeholders aligned, getting a stalking horse to create competition for the acquiring company, etc

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#97

Post by sushrutbidwai »

It seems to me from your blogpost, only motivation for building Preezo was to move ahead of Google/Yahoo and then sell of to either one of them. Most times, when only business model you are considering is to sell, then most of the times you fail.

I am assuming certain things here, as your business model and how you are going to make money is not at all mentioned in the article and will stand corrected if pointed out.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#98

Post by paraschopra »

jayro wrote: post #29
splatcollision wrote: post #28

This has inspired me to send some follow up emails on some leads I've been chasing, thanks!

Yes, do that! I now send status check emails to all of my consulting clients and prospects with great regularity.

Be careful. I can't find the link but one survey found out that the #1 reason why a deal didn't go through was because salesperson was too aggressive.

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#99

Post by Hixie »

rapind wrote: post #82
danwolff wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are correct, of course. It is so frustrating that I've justified it for the incorrect as a shortening of: I could (exhibit that I) care less (because I do care less than I currently exhibit). Or, as a matter of giving the benefit of the doubt: I could (exhibit that I) care less (because I am, through effort, caring more right now than I would naturally).

How about, "I care so little that I can't even be bothered to properly pronounce that I couldn't care less." or "I could care less" is actually sarcasm which implicates that caring is obviously unlikely. Both statements display a stronger degree of uncaring than "I couldn't care less" which is actually a pretty boring and to the point statement. Therefore I find "I could care less" to be the clear winner to indicate…

Seems to me you care quite a lot!

Re: How I Screwed Up My Google Acquisition

#100

Post by rapind »

Hixie wrote: post #99
rapind wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about, "I care so little that I can't even be bothered to properly pronounce that I couldn't care less." or "I could care less" is actually sarcasm which implicates that caring is obviously unlikely. Both statements display a stronger degree of uncaring than "I couldn't care less" which is actually a pretty boring and to the point statement. Therefore I find "I could care less" to be the clear winner to indicate…

Seems to me you care quite a lot!

More than you know!
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