How I Sold My Company to Twitter, Went to Facebook, and Screwed My Co-Founders
In this 2016 acquisition retrospective, @tim_sw reflects on the journey of bootstrapping and successfully selling their business.
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 Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE ★ 10 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 9 comments
selling out is not respectable. Selling out your colleagues is even less so.
Every person is offered deals by the devil before their real ship comes in. This is to separate the wicked from the good. People who are evil at heart will take the deal with the devil. People who are good will understand that money is not their solution (may be the root of all evil), and they should not taint their soul in order to make a few bucks.
Everybody falls, it may be that people who take dirty money fall harder. (needs study)
Disclaimer: I'm not suggesting any religious explanation for this phenomena, so any that you perceive is your own delusion. I'm simply stating what is observable, and likely fact (needs study). Dirty money comes first. Honest money comes after hard work and usually when the chips seem down.
One good nugget in there:
"Remember: if you’re having phone calls, the deal is still on. Phone calls are yesses, emails are nos."
Any guesses on how much money Antonio ended up making at FB? Was the trade off worth it? How to do even put number on the decision made.