
Ask HN: Examples of large exits without VC Funding? - prakster
Just asking for self-motivational purposes!
For example:
1. Plenty Of Fish sold to Match Group in 2012 for $575 Million, by sole founder Markus Frind.
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throwaway13337
Most of these companies fly under the radar because they don't need media
telling investors how good of an investment they are. That just invites
competition.

I used to work at a company like that. Our competitor was all over tech
crunch, etc but we were completely unknown to the tech community. We still
beat them because we were focused on our audience which had nothing to do with
the tech world.

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brudgers
I believe that the biggest exit ever, remains Microsoft. It is said to have
produced more than 10,000 millionaires in 1986 dollars in addition to the
handful of billionaires. Now technically, since it took $1,000,000 VC funding
in 1981 [1], it doesn't meet your criteria. On the other hand, because it was
a profitable company with a high pre-money valuation, the founders + Ballmer
kept control. Because the valuation was high and the investment small, the VC
had little effect on how the money was distributed.

I say this because, _never_ taking VC is not a great long term business goal.
Accepting outside investment is a business decision and one that in
Microsoft's case probably helped all their employees and certainly did not
hurt them.

[1]:
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/microsoft](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/microsoft)

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meagher
not an exit yet, but the MailChimp founders still own 100% of a 525M+
business.

And they send a lot of email, give back to their community (Atlanta, GA), and
sponsor a lot of independent art and media (podcasts).

[https://www.inc.com/magazine/201802/mailchimp-company-of-
the...](https://www.inc.com/magazine/201802/mailchimp-company-of-the-
year-2017.html)

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picodguyo
Not a software play, but RxBar recently sold for $600M with no VC.

[https://www.inc.com/robbie-abed/this-chicago-startup-sold-
it...](https://www.inc.com/robbie-abed/this-chicago-startup-sold-its-protein-
bar-company-for-600-million-to-kelloggs.html)

------
fab1an
Pardot (B2B Marketing Automation SaaS) was afaik entirely bootstrapped and
sold to ExactTarget (now SalesForce) for ~100M.
[https://www.saastr.com/a-real-life-saas-case-study-eloqua-
ma...](https://www.saastr.com/a-real-life-saas-case-study-eloqua-marketo-
pardot-there-are-3-different-paths-to-success-my-young-paduan/)

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tedmiston
There's probably a bias here around bootstrapped founders exiting at lower
valuations because the take home of 100% of 10M is easier to get than 5% of
200M.

I made up the numbers here but I think many founders are happy to get that
first or second base hit of _change your life but not quite FU money_ safety
net vs VC money forcing the bipolar choice between home run or strike out.

~~~
hjjiehebebe
Are you saying 10M isn't fuck you money? Its not rich but with planning you
can live middle class support a family and not work again.

~~~
seattle_spring
Give it a few hours. Sooner or later, someone will chime in saying that living
on $400k a year is "basically poverty" in SF or Silicon Valley.

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claudiulodro
ViralNova was just one dude with a couple freelance writers and sold for
$$$.[1]

That was in 2014. In 2018 it is way more difficult to bootstrap an online
content company (Would love to be proven wrong with an example though).

[1] [http://www.businessinsider.com/zealot-media-buys-scott-
delon...](http://www.businessinsider.com/zealot-media-buys-scott-delongs-
viralnova-for-100-million-2015-7)

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prakster
Also, not $100M+, but ShipStation sold to Stamps.com for $75 Million in 2014.

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muzani
If you don't count tech companies, plenty of non tech conglomerates,
restaurants, even things like cosmetics and trading make it big on just their
savings and bank loans.

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bdibs
It wasn’t an exit, but GitHub didn’t raise money until they got a $100MM
investment at a $650MM pre-money valuation.

~~~
rstoj
Similar situation with Grammarly which bootstrapped for a very long time (9y)
and then raised $100M:
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/grammarly](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/grammarly)

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prakster
Any recent examples in the $100 Million plus arena?

~~~
troydavis
One reason these are rare: if a bootstrapped company is valued at $100+
million, a small minority investment - say, 10% - is very meaningful cash for
the company yet involves relatively little dilution and little or no loss of
control. It gets a lot harder to justify not raising something.

(And yes, a bootstrapped business worth over $100MM is probably generating a
meaningful profit, but the founders may not be comfortable reinvesting it.)

~~~
nostrademons
It also helps build relationships and align incentives with powerful firms
that can be very useful in arranging an exit and getting the best price for
it.

Microsoft took a small mezzanine round right before they went public. They
didn't need the cash, but it brought investment bankers on board so that they
had an incentive to get the best possible price in the IPO. Similar story with
Whatsapp; they didn't need the cash, but having Sequoia on board gave them a
stamp of approval that probably helped their negotiating leverage both in
attracting employees and in selling to Facebook.

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hjjiehebebe
Does a floatation count? WiseTechGlobal in Australia floated for 1bn last
year, market cap gone up 3x since. Completely bootstrapped AFAIK.

