How I sold my company to Google ($80million)
In this 2011 acquisition retrospective, @sinzone reflects on the journey of bootstrapping and successfully selling their business. The deal highlights significant financial milestones ($80m).
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Unsolicited buyer inquiries versus running a deliberate auction process require very different negotiation leverage.
Bootstrapping for years without external capital provides extreme freedom, but exits are often triggered by energy depletion as much as financial gain.
Retaining ownership of code and operations creates pride, but transitioning to an acquirer requires letting go of absolute autonomy.
Community Debate Themes:
Hacker News peers debated transaction structures (cash vs earnout), founder tax strategies, and life after liquidating a long-term indie asset.
CATEGORY Startup Exits →
HISTORICAL ERA Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 54 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 18 comments
Here's how they really sold their company to Google: they raised less money than their competitors (just $4MM, I believe) from VCs who'd be happier with smaller exits (like First Round) so when Google decided they needed a DSP, Invite Media was the best option that could actually sell for less than $100MM. Everyone else was targeting mammoth Right-Media-style exits, on the assumption that they'd happen when the market was a little more mature.
More interesting to me is how a couple of college students started a company doing pretty leading-edge things in ad technology, when most people have to work in the industry for a few years just to figure out what the hell's going on. As I heard it (perhaps distorted), they initially had an experienced mentor who spent a lot of time with them, only to later compete aggressively with the same mentor when their business was off the ground.
This interview lacks substance, but you can still learn from it if you read between the lines. A few takeaways:
-Google is investing continuously in the display ad marketplace -A sure way to get acquired is to build relationships with businesses that want to give your potential acquirer money (see also Groupon) -Unique technology(like their predictive algorithms) may be more important to an acquirer than market share
I'll save you some time. This guy made a company that helps businesses with advertisements. Since Google sells ads he makes them a lot of money and they took notice and bought his company. In the future he plans to start more companies.
That's literally about all the information you'll get from the two minute video.
Probably the title raised a lot of expectations about learning the 'how'. So people expected a long and detailed video.
I would say for a 2 min video, it was good. Hey, TC did not cover an $80 million exit by a 23yr old.
Tell HN: Don't waste your time watching this like I did. It's a two-minute video with a sexy headline and no insight.
Can anyone recommend a few useful post-acquisition interviews? Thanks.