

Ask HN: Should we accept an acquisition? - mrstartupguy

We are a bootstrapped three person team of MIT CS grads. We've built a solid product in the enterprise space and are at the alpha stage. We are looking at raising  a seed round from a top tier VC but we recently received an acquisition offer. This would give each of us $2mm over a golden handcuff period (we have no outside investment yet). We believe in the product and the team. We are new grads so we want to learn the process of doing a startup (raising money, building teams, finding customers). On the flipside we could take the small success and build a company again with a more solid financial background and success history -- but have to be corporate guys for 2 years. Any opinions on what we should do?
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pedalpete
I like mahesh's idea, but keep this in mind.

If you take an offer now, you'll have some stability going forward, as well as
a successful exit.

If you continue on your own, you've got the possibility of gaining only
experience if the company fails for some reason.

You're young, so you'll have a great learning experience either way.

If the company that is looking to acquire you is also young and has the right
culture for you, you will still learn a lot while there. You say you want to
learn about raising money, building teams and finding customers. Have you
spoken to the acquiring company about what you'd like to learn? If so, they
could provide you with that learning while you're with them.

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mahesh_rm
Take a one week holiday together someplace you like. Have fun, drink some
beers, climb some mountain, and think together about a sensible and coherent
way to go. Go with that and don't look back. But this is only what I'd do.

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corporalagumbo
Two problems here: 1) Is your aim to sell this company? 2) If yes, is now the
best time to sell?

Regarding 1): What sort of company is it? Do you have an underlying philosophy
for what you are doing? Do you believe strongly in what you are doing? Or is
it just a company for a company's sake? Are you interested in and willing to
spend the time and effort to build it up - do you think it could get big?

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dylanhassinger
yes. an exit changes everything

