While i appreciate the story, I will caution for survivor bias.
E.g, someone who very publicly pushed their startup may regret that because their development process couldn't keep up with customer interest, due to which they "lost the momentum" and rebuilding momentum was insanely difficult having soured relationships earlier.
I'm not sure if it was even useful in this case. One day's delay is highly unlikely to have led to the deal failing. Therefore, I don't think this mindset/skillset has anything to do with selling a startup. As a matter of fact, I believe that the CFO was aware that the founder was lying.
I'm brutally honest, often to my detriment in commercial activities. But as far as BS goes, "I have an urgent thing on Friday so we need to close today" is not too terrible IMO. His urgent thing on Friday might have been getting the fuck out of the country to celebrate the sale in the midst of an economic downturn. Almost legit?
Are you talking about the partnership first strategy? That's pretty standard and how companies get to know each other.
> personal emergencies to deceive and pressure acquirers
There's plenty of gamesmanship during an acquisition - particularly a large company swallowing a small company. The big company can get bogged down, requiring the small company to stay the squeaky wheel to get the deal done. In this case the acquirer could have easily waited until Monday.
How do you know it was a lie? The article never said that they didn't have an urgent personal matter the next day.
The partnership thing was more holding their cards close rather than laying them out on the table. A sell is a form of partnership.
Of course I don't know exactly hat was said or how it was said or the circumstances, but the article does not indicate that either of these things were necessarily lies.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't exactly consider this lying, with all the negative connotations. It's just applying pressure.
No different than a b2b SaaS salesperson saying they need to close a deal by x date to receive a "special" discount. It's all made up, it's just part of the game
I was curious as well and most sources I found point to a similar structure above. Basically the more money they get, the bigger the fee, and then there is some sort of retainer to cover their costs.
>"At YC’s first batch dinner, we recognized that drinks were missing from the menu. Founder thirst became our opportunity. We showed up with a cooler full of sparkling waters and a makeshift sign that read “Benefits & Bubbles.”
In exchange for signing up with Savvy, we handed out drinks.
To this day, that lemon-sparkling-water stand remains our highest-ROI marketing tactic."
Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!
I always love it when somebody discovers a simple, elegant, grass-roots marketing method -- that works on a local level!
E.g, someone who very publicly pushed their startup may regret that because their development process couldn't keep up with customer interest, due to which they "lost the momentum" and rebuilding momentum was insanely difficult having soured relationships earlier.