

Ask YC: Does your choice of language/platform play a role during an acquisition? - luccastera

I was wondering if a startup's choice of technology can affect an acquisition. For example, Google seems to use Python &#38; Java a lot, so if your application is built in Lisp or  .NET, how big of a role will that play during negotiations?<p>I'm interested in hearing how this scenario is usually handled and if that has ever affected an acquisition?
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nostrademons
Have no first-hand experience, but someone asked this question of Chris Sacca
(Google) at the first startup school, and he said:

"Don't worry about it. Use whatever you're most comfortable developing in. If
we buy you, we'll likely have to rewrite all your code anyway to use Google's
infrastructure and scale to millions of users."

~~~
nickb
So if your exit target is Google, you might as well save them time and
increase your valuation by using Java and GWT.

Ugh :(

~~~
nostrademons
They'll still have to rewrite. The "infrastructure" he was referring to was
GoogleFS/BigTable/MapReduce and their other massively-distributed backends.
You don't have access to them if you aren't Google.

I've heard that GWT isn't actually used by any notable (= public has heard of
it) Google project. Could be wrong though; no inside information.

~~~
nickb
What about Gmail and Calendars? I was under an impression that both of those
use it. Maybe even Google Reader... not sure.

~~~
nostrademons
Gmail doesn't: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=56768>. Dunno about
Calendars or Reader.

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jackdied
Yes, but it is a hard thing to plan around. Can you really know who might want
to buy you?

Good advice from an old boss: DO NOT include words like kludge, bug, garbage,
or swear words in code or checkin comments. All production code has kludges,
bugs, and fscking garbage in it but making it easy for a due diligence auditor
to grep it can't help.

[True story, at MusicBlvd.com I was ordered to write a SUID root program to
move html files from staging to production directories. I protested but wrote
it anyway and named it kludge.c. After we were bought by CDNow I found out
they had a SUID root bash shell on _every single frontend machine_. Kludge
indeed.]

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dazzawazza
A startup I worked at received investment from a group of investors. While
doing due diligence the investors said we made it easier for them because we
were using Microsoft technologies. They turned out to be really bad investors
who were real PITA.

I guess I am trying to say it only matters to people you probably don't want
to do business with. They should care about how capable you are not the
platform/language you chose to use as a tool to show your capabilities.

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fauigerzigerk
Just a data point: writely, which is now google docs, was originally based on
.NET (on the server side):

[http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/09/congrats-to-writely-for-
usi...](http://scobleizer.com/2006/03/09/congrats-to-writely-for-using-net-to-
get-acquired-by-google/)

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tlrobinson
Another Google data point: Steve Yegge ported Ruby on Rails to JavaScript
because Google works in only 4 languages... C++, Java, Python, and JavaScript.

<http://www.iunknown.com/2007/06/steve-yegge-por.html>

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dfranke
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26036>

