One concrete consequence is that Y Combinator funding lets you sell early, if you want to. It can sometimes make sense to sell yourself when you're small for a few million, rather than take more funding and roll the dice again. Google likes to do early-stage acquisitions, and we expect them to become increasingly common as other companies learn what Google has.
If you take a large amount of money from an investor, you usually give up this option. But we realize (having been there) that an early offer from an acquirer can be very tempting for a group of young hackers. So if you want to sell early, that's ok. We'd make more if you went for an IPO, but we're not going to force anyone to do anything they don't want to.
>> It can sometimes make sense to sell yourself when you're small for a few million, rather than take more funding and roll the dice again.
If they sold hackermeter for "a few million" I'm giving up on capitalism. It was good while it lasted.
Snark aside, I assume they didn't get a few million because they didn't disclose the amount. It would have to be an amount that neither side wanted to brag about.
You mean one that neither side sees any benefit to bragging about. Most mature people realize there is about zero personal benefit to letting folks know that you now have a few million in the bank. Similarly, most acquirers realize there is about zero corporate benefit to letting folks know that you just paid a few million for a 2-month old startup. So it is to both sides' advantage to keep the terms of the deal secret.
Don't assume that just because you don't know about something, it's inconsequential.
One concrete consequence is that Y Combinator funding lets you sell early, if you want to. It can sometimes make sense to sell yourself when you're small for a few million, rather than take more funding and roll the dice again. Google likes to do early-stage acquisitions, and we expect them to become increasingly common as other companies learn what Google has.
If you take a large amount of money from an investor, you usually give up this option. But we realize (having been there) that an early offer from an acquirer can be very tempting for a group of young hackers. So if you want to sell early, that's ok. We'd make more if you went for an IPO, but we're not going to force anyone to do anything they don't want to.