> If I do this again, I’d wait to tell my team about the sale until it’s a done deal, but I’d also make sure the team knows that an acquisition is always a possibility. I’d explain before I even start looking for a buyer that an acquisition might happen, and that the team won’t necessarily know it’s happening. If it did, I’d prioritize a buyer whose vision aligns with the team’s interests, as I did with TinyPilot.
> This strategy is not ideal or fair to everyone, but it feels like the least bad of many flawed options.
That's better than the norm, but I agree it's not entirely satisfying.
For sales larger than the one the author wrote about, I wonder whether the possible problems that the author mentioned could be averted by making the sale a win for the employees.
Ideally, the employees already would have enough vested equity, for the sale to be positively life-changing. But if not, maybe, as the sale is planned, everyone gets issued RSUs that vest immediately if and when a deal closes? Or bonuses? Or maybe the sale terms include retaining everyone for at least a year at double compensation?
(More generally, I believe in cutting in early startup employees on equity in a more significant way than is conventional. And maybe the imminent-sale alignment risks are another instance in which significant pieces of the pie would help and be appropriate.)
so this gives an average yearly salary of 230k. Very close to FAANG senior salary with much more risk, effort and (probably) worse life-work balance. OP quit from google in 2018 and ran some other business, and this is his biggest sale so far. I think it shows how hard it is to make better money outside FAANG even when extremely talented and lucky like OP. But it's probably more about lifestyle choices.
“My lawyer warned me that when I sell my business, I lose limited liability protection. If the purchase agreement didn’t limit my liability to the buyer, the buyer could later sue me for any amount, even if it exceeds what they paid in the acquisition.”
“Sales below $1M are usually asset sales, meaning that the buyer is purchasing assets from the business but not the business itself. So, I technically still own a company called TinyPilot, but I transferred all of its physical and intellectual property to the new owner.”
Aren’t these contradictory? If it’s an asset sale, the deal is between TinyPilot LLC and the buyer for the assets.
Congrats on the sale! Wondering what your thoughts are of these extremely low cost kvm’s from Sipeed (NanoKVM)?
Do you think that allows you to expand your market since the hardware is cheaper as you maintain great user experience? Or does that force you to go upmarket as hobbyists need only the minimal feature set?
A lot of very cheap risc-v boards like milk-v duo sbc are available now
Absolute gold for any founder or would-be founder, as are all his posts on TinyPilot and his other web businesses. Raw numbers and transparency abound, and the overall tone is that of a well-organised, fair-minded person.
> I had a dedicated TinyPilot GCP project, but it was within my personal Google account.
This sounds crazy to me. Never ever mix your business and personal accounts for anything! The point of an LLC (in any jurisdiction) is to keep your personal and business concerns separate, so why would you break that rule for Google?
Which is why my reaction to these lines:
> I always sent emails related to the business from my @tinypilotkvm.com email address.
> I always used @tinypilotkvm.com email addresses whenever signing up for services on behalf of TinyPilot.
was along the lines of "Well, DUH!" Of course, that's the first thing you do with a new business: dedicated bank account, dedicated email address.
Lessons from my first exit
(mtlynch.io)341 points by saeedesmaili 18 hours ago | 100 comments
Comments
> This strategy is not ideal or fair to everyone, but it feels like the least bad of many flawed options.
That's better than the norm, but I agree it's not entirely satisfying.
For sales larger than the one the author wrote about, I wonder whether the possible problems that the author mentioned could be averted by making the sale a win for the employees.
Ideally, the employees already would have enough vested equity, for the sale to be positively life-changing. But if not, maybe, as the sale is planned, everyone gets issued RSUs that vest immediately if and when a deal closes? Or bonuses? Or maybe the sale terms include retaining everyone for at least a year at double compensation?
(More generally, I believe in cutting in early startup employees on equity in a more significant way than is conventional. And maybe the imminent-sale alignment risks are another instance in which significant pieces of the pie would help and be appropriate.)
> $920k over four years
so this gives an average yearly salary of 230k. Very close to FAANG senior salary with much more risk, effort and (probably) worse life-work balance. OP quit from google in 2018 and ran some other business, and this is his biggest sale so far. I think it shows how hard it is to make better money outside FAANG even when extremely talented and lucky like OP. But it's probably more about lifestyle choices.
“Sales below $1M are usually asset sales, meaning that the buyer is purchasing assets from the business but not the business itself. So, I technically still own a company called TinyPilot, but I transferred all of its physical and intellectual property to the new owner.”
Aren’t these contradictory? If it’s an asset sale, the deal is between TinyPilot LLC and the buyer for the assets.
Happy to answer take any feedback and answer any questions about this post.
Do you think that allows you to expand your market since the hardware is cheaper as you maintain great user experience? Or does that force you to go upmarket as hobbyists need only the minimal feature set?
A lot of very cheap risc-v boards like milk-v duo sbc are available now
This sounds crazy to me. Never ever mix your business and personal accounts for anything! The point of an LLC (in any jurisdiction) is to keep your personal and business concerns separate, so why would you break that rule for Google? Which is why my reaction to these lines:
> I always sent emails related to the business from my @tinypilotkvm.com email address.
> I always used @tinypilotkvm.com email addresses whenever signing up for services on behalf of TinyPilot.
was along the lines of "Well, DUH!" Of course, that's the first thing you do with a new business: dedicated bank account, dedicated email address.