On Wednesday, May 4, Paul Graham is giving a talk at PARC in Palo Alto:
Posted by jjwiseman at April 14, 2005 10:42 AMMost people who start startups do it to get rich, and the most common way to get rich from a startup is to sell it. Investors call this an "exit strategy," and they won't even consider a company that doesn't have a fairly clear one. In this case the founders and investors' interests are aligned: you should be thinking about exit strategies before you even start a company. In this talk I'll describe the kinds of ideas that yield buyable startups, the different stages at which you can sell a startup, and what you should do (and not do) to make it happen at each stage.
nooo .. :(
i don't want to sell my company! it's mine - it's my precious!
i hope there also are ways to get funding from someone who do not expect me to sell my company as soon as it's going well
Posted by: Lars Rune Nøstdal on April 14, 2005 11:14 AMOf course there are ways to get funding without selling. But you don't get rich with funding, you get debt.
Hey John: make sure Evolution has an exit strategy that doesn't include Rawr coming back with a shotgun. How is Rawr by the way? How about Patriche? I miss them all. :(
Posted by: cooooooodle on April 14, 2005 12:35 PMThere are two basic ways of raising money for your business. By selling equity, or stock, in your company, or like coo+dle says, borrowing money at a set interest rate. When people talk about startup funding they usually mean the former in the form of venture capital. Debt, of course, also has an "exit strategy" which is you have to pay back the principal with interest. It's pretty unreasonable to expect someone to give you money for a while without any idea of how they're going to get it back. And if you do sell the company, you don't have to sell your share! That's the fun of dividing ownership up into tiny little pieces.
Posted by: Geoff on April 15, 2005 01:49 PMW00t! business school has taught you -something- I see.
Posted by: coyahoody on April 15, 2005 02:31 PMIn related news, Paul Graham has started an VC fund/bootcamp call Y Combinator: http://www.ycombinator.com/
paul graham, paul graham, paul graham.
http://www.idlewords.com/2005/04/dabblers_and_blowhards.htm
Yeah, duh, like, I totally linked to both of those already you last two guys.