

A Funny Story about an Acquisition that Didn’t Happen - southpolesteve
http://www.nathanlustig.com/2012/03/02/a-funny-story-about-an-acquisition-that-didnt-happen/

======
Kynlyn
Sounds like he came out ahead. Forget the money; the founder he describes
sounds like a first-class jackass. No amount of money would make me want to be
part of an organization that he ran.

~~~
jcc80
Agreed. Unfortunately, for better or worse, this is often the type of
personality that leads an organization. That "salesy" personality really rubs
me the wrong way but it can somehow work on enough people and create enough
excitement/momentum to move things forward.

------
mattdeboard
I don't get it, this reads kind of weird. It kind of reads a little like
jealousy, I guess? You spent 3/4 of the article slamming the guy in serious
way then the last 2 paragraphs saying "I guess he became professional." Weird.

~~~
chrisacky
Hardly. Strongly disagree if that is the vibe you took from the article.

It just reinforces the:

"tough guys win, nice guys lose" mentality. (Albeit, the original poster
didn't exactly lose).

People who try and juggernaut their way often possess traits which might allow
them to steamroll through certain personalities. This BS pitch clearly didn't
work on the OP, and at that point, that was all it was a BS pitch. But it
clearly worked on other people.

~~~
karamazov
I think the whole point is it might not be BS any more; the guy was selling
smoke initially, but is now running a valuable business.

~~~
jonathanwallace
Or, "don't judge a book by its cover?"

~~~
felipemnoa
"But the thing that people forget sometimes, is that even though appearances
can be misleading, they're usually not."

Hermione Granger, Harry Potter and The Methods of Rationality

------
incub8or
This assumes the same corporate/shareholding structure would have prevailed
through the process of changing the business model. It is by no means certain
this would have been the case as the "pivot" could have been done through a
new company. So, given all the facts available at the time, sounds like the
right decision was taken.

~~~
nathanlustig1
This is very true, it makes for a better blog post title to say it could have
been worth a bunch of money today, but in reality, its likely the stock would
have been diluted down to barely anything today.

------
StavrosK
Sounds like he made the right decision:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outcome_bias>

------
wilfra
Lots of people probably turned down Steve Jobs for similar reasons and now
have similar regrets. It can be hard to tell the difference between a skilled
hustler and a bullshit artist. Perhaps the only real difference is what they
choose to sell.

Faced with a similar dilemma I would ignore much of what the hustler was
telling me and talk to the other people involved (i.e. the technical co-
founders) and try and base much of my impression and decision on them and how
much trust they have in the hustler. Since they've done so well I have a
feeling if you had done this you would have gotten something like 'ya ya he's
a bit over the top but he's a really smart guy and we are doing great things
here' etc. This may have led you to making a different decision.

