I am not entirely sure this is true. As a young serial entrepreneur with one 7 figure exit I can tell you that most people I meet have no idea who I am or what the company I sold even did. So while an exit does probably help I don't think "much easier" is exactly accurate. That said I see the main point from the author of this post, but I believe he missed some things.
I sold my company for less than 20 million because I came from a middle class family, I had never had money, my parents were the epitome of middle class and I lived a modest life. The amount of money we settled on was enough for me to life for a very long time without significantly changing my lifestyle. It gave me a sense of security and a parachute in case I was to fall on hard times later.
Even at a young age I knew i was giving up alot of possible future profit for a short term payday, but that said i have never really regretted selling because it gave me the freedom to do anything I desired, as it turns out what i want to do and what I was already doing arent terribly far apart, but the projects I am working on now are EXACTLY what I want to do and will make money as time goes on but do not have to be rushed or turned into something they are not.
My current project I would not sell unless my percentage of the exit netted me over 250 million probably however I am a long way from that and just having fun right now.
Though for the most part I agree with the author of the original posts I just think people should consider that there are reasons why some people choose to exit for smaller amounts, some make perfect sense and others make very little however as long as the person selling is happy with the outcome who is to judge?
I think he's not suggesting it's bad to sell your company, but rather that going into a new one with the idea that you're only there to make money is a bad idea.
Hey I think we've met IRL in an apartment on McKinley Ave. You know where I live and that it is not glamorous. I kind of hoped the text on the sidebar wherein I'm begging for money would contextualize the post appropriately.
I depends the size of your company to and whether you have been able to take any money off the table. If I'm sitting here earning under minimum wage from my startup and someone comes along and offers $20 million, sure I'm going to take it. If you have already been able to take a few million off the table to cover the material side of life then it's a very different proposition.
If you have $20 million, you can put as much of your time (which you actually own) into your idea as you think it needs. Once you have proof of concept, you can look for funding and then hire people and have a burn rate. I don't think, however, people with $20 million are going to stake their whole fortune on one startup. That's just irresponsible, no matter how good the idea is.
Also, with that kind of money, you can actually socialize with VCs as equals and, if none of them want to fund you after a few years, it's probably because your idea sucks (as a business). Then you do not hire other people and you do not lose your $20 million.
That's what I would do. I wouldn't hire a single person (for cash, not equity) until I had the validation of knowing other people were willing to invest. This is because I know I'm smart, but I've done creative work (game design, writing) and know that half of even my ideas are bad. Creativity is just about having the persistence and judgement to develop the good ones.
I sold my company for less than 20 million because I came from a middle class family, I had never had money, my parents were the epitome of middle class and I lived a modest life. The amount of money we settled on was enough for me to life for a very long time without significantly changing my lifestyle. It gave me a sense of security and a parachute in case I was to fall on hard times later.
Even at a young age I knew i was giving up alot of possible future profit for a short term payday, but that said i have never really regretted selling because it gave me the freedom to do anything I desired, as it turns out what i want to do and what I was already doing arent terribly far apart, but the projects I am working on now are EXACTLY what I want to do and will make money as time goes on but do not have to be rushed or turned into something they are not.
My current project I would not sell unless my percentage of the exit netted me over 250 million probably however I am a long way from that and just having fun right now.
Though for the most part I agree with the author of the original posts I just think people should consider that there are reasons why some people choose to exit for smaller amounts, some make perfect sense and others make very little however as long as the person selling is happy with the outcome who is to judge?