How I sold my company to Twitter, in spite of my own stupidity
In this 2016 acquisition retrospective, @prostoalex reflects on the journey of bootstrapping and successfully selling their business.
Core Principles for Independent Builders:
Unsolicited buyer inquiries versus running a deliberate auction process require very different negotiation leverage.
Bootstrapping for years without external capital provides extreme freedom, but exits are often triggered by energy depletion as much as financial gain.
Retaining ownership of code and operations creates pride, but transitioning to an acquirer requires letting go of absolute autonomy.
Community Debate Themes:
Hacker News peers debated transaction structures (cash vs earnout), founder tax strategies, and life after liquidating a long-term indie asset.
CATEGORY Startup Exits →
HISTORICAL ERA Cloud & Mobile Era (2014–2019)
COMMUNITY SCORE 20 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 3 comments
It's fascinating to hear a small part of his side of the story. Here's a TechCrunch writeup of the original acquisition: https://techcrunch.com/2012/05/10/twitter-acquires-restengine/ ↗
This article is competent devoid of any interesting details. I think I can sum it up in one sentence:
It's unfortunate about the NDA. How was was it sold for? What were the details of the employee staying on? What types of terms did they ask?
Great to hear the backstory of one of these acquihires we hear about all the time. I'm guessing that most of them aren't quite as rosy as we would imagine.