

Ask YC: What do founders do after they have been bought out? - zitterbewegung

I am wondering what founders do after they have been bought out?
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menloparkbum
I once had a contract working with the division of a big company formed after
the acquisition of a startup. From my vantage point most of the negative
things already mentioned were valid for the founders, so I'll mention what I
consider the "perks."

The good points seemed to be: the founders were now VPs of something or other,
so in addition to their immediate cashout, they also received VP level
salaries, and bonuses.

They had the freedom to say "I'm only coming in for meetings."

The rest of the time they "worked" at home - i.e. they didn't do any work,
they hired contractors like me to do it for them.

They had the freedom to be complete assholes in meetings and interactions with
staff they deemed stupid.

The guys who had it hardest were the non-founders who worked at the original
startup. They had to stick around for four years to receive their 300 grand or
whatever it was, but couldn't be assholes or just not show up four out of
every five days. They had to put up with all the weird political bullshit that
happens in a big company, which was made worse because the founders were busy
making everyone at the big company angry. This seemed doubly hard to take,
because most startup employees take jobs at startups partially to avoid big
company politics and bullshit. Founders, throw your employees a bone and make
sure they have an accelerated vesting schedule upon acquisition clause written
into their contract.

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dnaquin
Go to work for their corporate overlords. Slowly become disenfranchised,
resentful and restless. Until they give up and resign before their shares
fully vest.

~~~
neilk
This is not true. Most stay until they are fully vested.

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richtaur
It's often less awesome than it sounds:
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles/460987802/>

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asdf333
work for the man. dream about leaving. feel some responsibility to see your
product through to success. get frustrated at the bureaucracy and politics.
wait for shares to vest. worry that you are getting soft and won't be able to
leave when the time comes.

read news.yc to remind yourself of what it used to be like.

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neilk
I want to ask a related question: most of you startup folks dream of selling
out to somebody... what do you think it's going to be like? Do you even plan
that far? You do realize that after the big liquidity moment, you have 2-3
years of working for the acquiring company, in order to realize your gains?

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blogimus
Oh gee, maybe launch another startup or a venture capital firm?

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mattmaroon
If you mean immediately after, kegstands are usually involved.

~~~
SwellJoe
Some of us are too old for those sorts of shenanigans.

This is the point at which I would make a joke about celebrating by having a
nice lunch with the other old people at Luby's, but I don't think the valley
has Luby's or anything comparable, and I don't know where old people in the
valley stereotypically go to eat.

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MaysonL
After fulfilling their commitments to the acquirer, and their colleagues,
whatever the hell they feel like doing.

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vaksel
usually they go work for the company that bought them out

------
zain
Take their payout, quit, and do it all over again!

------
tstegart
become a snarky venture capitalist?

~~~
SwellJoe
I don't think I've met any venture capitalists that are snarky. I've been
surprised by how pleasant most of them are, given the reputation the industry
has. I have met a couple of obnoxiously "fratty" VCs, but they weren't
partners, and they weren't with a top tier firm.

