I took that as tongue-in-cheek bravado. If he really thinks it's certain that he'll be finally set in 20 months from a not-yet-launched-startup, he perhaps has more pressing things to worry about than what he'll do afterwards. Like launching, perhaps.
> Actually I started living pretty much like this after my startup sold four years ago. I saw a dramatic increase in my happiness and life satisfaction.
Wow, all that's holding back my life satisfaction is a major windfall! Thanks for the useful tip.
> I never wanted a startup that burned money just to get acquired. I wanted one that could make me real money from the very beginning.
I agree!
Although many years back my preferred business model became developing a business so that I can sell it whole-hog to somebody else, that has never meant that I was OK with burning money (or even using other people's money in the first place).
Coming from a place of poverty is probably why I am extremely reluctant to actually go into debt for a business. My preferred method is to live lean and bootstrap up.
Before I consider selling a business, I want it to be a real, profitable business that is standing on its own. If it's not that, then I don't have anything to sell.
> This is actually pretty surprising to me, since a financially motivated person would normally wait until a better deal, and just collect their paycheck in the meantime.
I imagine you need to signal that you want in on the deal by departing. Get founder equity.
> There's really three outcomes to a startup: They die, they get acquired, they IPO.
There's a fourth: they serve the needs of their customers over the course of years and decades. which, as someone in the market for an email client I can fall in love with and use for the rest of my life; is exactly what I want.
> Now if this is true, that takes lots of balls...
Yep, it really is. Not only have I turned down several huge income opportunities to work on MarketVibe, but I'd also sell just about everything I have to see this product come to market. We have a true game-changer of a product, and it's something I really believe in. We also have the right team to build it--I'm a target customer for this product, which is one reason I know the market needs it so badly. And it's a nice money-maker (SaaS).
But yeah. If I had to sell my car tomorrow to finance the startup, I'd do it with zero second thoughts. I'm in this 100%. Otherwise, why run a startup at all?
Been there, done that. A startup I had exercised my options in was bought out by a company that was "talking about an IPO in the next few years".
That was several years ago.
The execs and VCs in the original startup got almost all the money in the liquidity preference. Ironic because I did "rock the boat" when I joined by attempting to ask for a better share class. 23 year old me asking for preferred shares lol. It failed.
The bigger company doesn't seem to be in IPO mode anymore. But I have shares of it, with a notional value 1/8th of what I paid to exercise my options.
> Sometimes I can make it a whole day without thinking about it, but it feels like I'm just burning time until I can finally cash in these shares and never worry about money again.
I can relate to that too, for other opportunities, its always good to look forward to something.
>I'd set it up as an actual business, make profit and expand, I wouldn't wait for some investors coming in throwing money at me, I don't get why people in tech cant see that.
> "Not everyone thinks about their company this way. I have a good friend who is running a very successful startup with a fantastic future ahead. He told me – and I quite believe him – that he would sell the company for a billion dollars over his dead body."
I don't think this friend is really different from Eric. Both companies are for sale, just at different price points. A startup that isn't for sale is one where you'd have to physically threaten the founder to acquire it.
Of course, the number of founders that have breathlessly pitched me their company that will be "a multi-billion dollar business in 5 years" are uncountable. So I'd argue Eric has a more pragmatic and realistic view of his possible outcomes.
No, I sold my company in 2019 and exited last summer. It took up far too much time to pull off anything like this. The new venture is purely in fundraising and research mode until I stop this little experiment.
> I was deciding whether this venture was worth committing to another year of 70+ hour weeks. I need a higher level of certainty than investors do because my time is more valuable to me than their money is to them.Investors place bets in a portfolio of companies, but I only have one life.
Both startup founders and investors alike seem to forget this (for obvious reasons) so it is good to put this on your toilet wall so you see it often.
This was around 3 years ago. Things are much better now.
Some context: not all startups are financed with external investments; some happen to run from founders' personal savings and debt. I consider myself, as an ex-CEO, to be fully responsible for the failure, but it doesn't make myself a failure. I lived and learned through the experience.
That's my favorite part.
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