[joedev]

Why does success == exit? I guess to each his own, but I would hate to be working for years on something with the goal being some finish line, especially when often "exit" for the founders means being sucked into another organization where you have even less control over choosing your work. So many other ways to measure success that this story falls flat for me.

[Pro_bity]

Exits are complex. You have to consider not just your work, but the livelihoods and goals of your team and investors and ultimately where the market is going. The decision to exit is a bit of an out-of-body experience. Often, you don't think about yourself until you are in the process. At that point, hopefully you get to use your personal preferences to make a decision as to who to be acquired by.

[jewel]

If you take investment money then I believe that's how your investors will define success, since it's the best way for them to get a ROI.

If you bootstrap then in my opinion profitability is how I'd define success.

[minimax]

You have to take the article in context. The author of the post is a partner at a venture capital firm. In VC the only real measure of success is return on investment.