One Thing I Learned From Today’s Breakfast

42 comments April 15th, 2008

Today at breakfast we had an interesting discussion on selling your technology vs. selling your business. We discussed the motivation of the buying company (making money):

• People
  

  Company will buy startups to get key personnel.

• Product
  

  Company will buy a product which they can plug into their sales process. Startups must have a whole product, training, documentation, support.

• New Market
  

  Finally companies will buy another company as a way to expand into a new market, a new vertical, usually it is an adjunct market.

In general, companies are not looking for technology, they want the team in place and committed to growing the business.

Why Do You Meet So Early?

Add comment April 14th, 2008

We get a lot of serious folks at 7:30 in the morning. It’s for bootstrappers, who are founders who are trying to sell what they have instead of seek investment, so they can get on with their workday after the breakfast. It brings out an interesting mix of folks.

We’ve had many attendees who have raised investment or been acquired, but the focus of the conversation is on practical issues related to bootstrapping a software startup. The age range is 20’s through 50’s with a mix of men and women. And since it’s in Silicon Valley there are folks from many lands.