Watching an acquirer ruin your company
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Watching an acquirer ruin your company
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Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#2> Make sure you’re convinced that they understand the level of investment needed from them post-acquisition.
It’s way more than this. The acquirer also has to share your vision, be willing to let you execute on it without interference, be willing to commit funding for sufficient time for it to grow legs, have deep enough pockets to sustain the investment, and be honest about all of the above. Quite often the acquirer is just as caught up in the heat of acquiring as the acquired is.
In my experience, if you are trying to execute on a vision, acquisitions are supremely dangerous.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#3FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again.
I built a satisfying career on a couple of those.
Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#4FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again. I built a satisfying career on a couple of those. Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
I'm sorry, I can't resist. What is a "fuzzy pumper" in this context?
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#5I think it's safe to assume that if your company is acquired, it will be "ruined". Even in the best case, where the product/service stays alive and some of the original team is still working on it, it's going to be somebody else calling the shots and taking it in all sorts of unexpected directions.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#6FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again. I built a satisfying career on a couple of those. Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
I'm sorry, I can't resist. What is a "fuzzy pumper" in this context?
I assume it means https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuzzing which in this context would be trying the idea with multiple input parameters until one works best. Kind of like neural networks.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#7No post body was provided.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#8I think it's safe to assume that if your company is acquired, it will be "ruined". Even in the best case, where the product/service stays alive and some of the original team is still working on it, it's going to be somebody else calling the shots and taking it in all sorts of unexpected directions.
Yeah even ones that are "successful" like Whatsapp still have the founders unhappy with the direction. Acquisition is almost never a way to achieve any goal other than getting paid.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#9FFS, if it’s a good idea do it again. I built a satisfying career on a couple of those. Good ideas are for squishing obsessively into the fuzzy pumper until you get an iteration worth sticking in the oven.
I'm sorry, I can't resist. What is a "fuzzy pumper" in this context?
Something you shove Play-Doh into and out come different shapes.
Re: Watching an acquirer ruin your company
#10I’ve seen this twice. First time the PE firm installed their CEO who came in and immediately started talking about cleaning house. A bunch of developers left fearing a layoff. That was bad enough, but what he really meant was sales. He gutted the sales team and brought in his guys. Sales tanked, company growth stopped, hard. Features dwindled and bugs grew. This clown and his cronies were gone after two years and the company still struggles today.
Second time. A $10B company acquired a $4B company. The parent demanded high margins from the company that had been running on low margins and legacy, near end of life applications. Layoffs ensued and the parent was choking on the acquisition. They’d been sold on a bogus modernization effort that ended as soon as the acquisition closed. That acquisition is a drag on their earnings today, six years later.
Getting to see these type of disasters first hand is pretty cool imo.