[jacquesm]

Investor goals and founder goals are rarely aligned. If you want to go for world domination and would rather risk everything to achieve that and possibly end up with nothing at all then go the investor route. That will increase your chances of ending up with nothing, but it will (perversely) also increase your chances of success.

If you're already happy at your current level just grow it organically and don't look back.

Remember: happiness is the ability to be content with what you already have, not with what you could do.

I wrote about this years ago, shameless blog post plug:

http://jacquesmattheij.com/three-roads-to-the-top-of-the-mou...

Best of luck, whichever path you decide to take.

[tehayj]

Thanks a lot! I also spoke with a friend who already received funding and we will simply keep growing our own way but also work with some lawyers who go out and find a buyer for the company.

[jacquesm]

> also work with some lawyers who go out and find a buyer for the company.

Hm. You realize that this may be a bit premature?

You're in the midst of your growth curve, I'd go a bit further before thinking about selling the company, especially if you want to remain 'happy'. Selling a company usually means there will be some strings attached, for instance, you might end up working for the acquiring party for a set period (possibly years...), and you will lose autonomy, which is one surefire way of becoming less happy.

On top of all that you'll have to negotiate a deal (preferably one which does not leave you with a bunch of illiquid stock but with a nice pile of cash), and that too will take a lot of organization and knowledge.

I'd suggest you do everything you can to read up on your situation and what your options are before you commit to any moves.

[tehayj]

Yes you are absolutely right. We just put things into place step by step to make it more sellable. We still have team members that can't be replaced but work on changing this.

[ido]

take note that the slow/"safe" way also has its own risk - that someone will discover your currently-secret goldmine and overtake you due to having more resources/connections/investment.

[jacquesm]

Or even worse: that instead of competing with you on quality and reach they start giving it away, before inevitably going bust. They'll destroy the market for you anyway...

But that risk always exists, even for funded companies these risks are present. It's an arms race and if your opponent reaches for the nuclear option you have to be very patient and stable if you intend to wait them out and they may even succeed.

[tehayj]

That's where our unfair advantage comes in. We know already some companies who work on replicating what we do and they have good chances to make this happen, but...

- Our product is hard to replicate and this will take them time and give them a lot of headache. We know some companies gave up.

- We build our own competitor in the same niche right now (under different leadership but I still hold control) so we cover the first and second spot in it. They are talented and can copy us first. So if people want choice they will get that.

- We dominate the conversation and have some things in place that ensure it will stay like this.

Regardless of all this, I'm fine if we would loose the top spot because the market is growing so fast that even a smaller piece of the pie is a decent sized one and we keep the whole operation extremely lean and focused so we we will stay profitable no matter what.

[seibelj]

That is amazing! Some killer instincts in you, make your own competition to kill the other competition. Incredible

[jacquesm]

> we keep the whole operation extremely lean and focused so we we will stay profitable no matter what.

This is key, as long as you can maintain that you will survive and might even win against a much bigger competitor.