What I learned from getting my side project acquired
In this 2013 acquisition retrospective, @typpo 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 Web 2.0 Genesis (2007–2013)
COMMUNITY SCORE 396 points
TOTAL DISCUSSIONS 54 comments
This post reminded me of pg's advice for how to get startup ideas. Compare:
"I have 5+ side projects. I’d like to make businesses out of them, but I often lose interest after a couple weeks. Asterank was the only project that I’ve stuck with for over a year, and it paid off even though there wasn’t a clear path to monetization... It’s hard to predict what will be valuable as a side project. For hobbies, working on what you’re most passionate about is the best way to get a return." [1]
"Live in the future and build what seems interesting. Strange as it sounds, that's the real recipe." [2]
1. http://www.ianww.com/blog/2013/10/08/lessons-from-getting-my-side-project-acquired/ ↗
2. http://paulgraham.com/startupideas.html ↗
Thanks for the vitamin C shot of inspiration. I'm working on a project to dramatically diminish the need for animal-testing in science experiments[1], and the process has been humbling. I know little about science.
As you recommended in the article, I've been speaking with scientists from around the world (and anyone else who will listen) and learning as much as I can, as fast as I can.
Zen Master Shunryu Suzuki was right, "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few".
[1]http://selfexperiments.com ↗
Lesson 7: You need to stick with it
I'm trying to do this right now. I challenged myself to do 100 consecutive days of commits to my side projects and I'm currently at day 94. Unfortunately, my private repos don't show up in my streak unless I'm logged in, but most of them are here: https://github.com/jonstjohn ↗ .
I've still bounced between about 3 projects in the past 3 months. I struggle with what seems like it should be the last 5-10%, although I'm looking at forcing myself to launch even if I'm not happy with everything.
If no one notices your project but it is genuinely interesting, just blog about it until they notice. I posted Asterank Discover on HN and it got 5 points. Then I wrote a blog post about it that made the front page. Go figure.
I think this might be that people tend to prefer reading about stories on products rather than a product landing page ?
Q: is it necessary to incorporate a side project like this from the beginning ?
I'm planning to found a company that will build several products. If one of them achieves traction and revenue growth, I'm wondering if there are any issues in making it easily acquirable. I suppose shared code is an issue.