Filtrbox acquired by Jive Software | Hacker News Reader

Filtrbox acquired by Jive Software

techcrunch.com

25 pointsparaschopra13 comments

I read (somewhere else) that this is the 4th of the TechStars class of 10 to be acquired. Obviously, "acquired" can mean that the founders got a fat signing bonus and an unusually large options plan at the acquiring company, but I still think that's impressive for TechStars. It's still early to judge, but the % of TechStars companies that get Series A funding and the % that have been acquired is starting to look pretty impressive, especially considering that it's in Boulder.

/respect to Filtrbox and TechStars both.

The "especially considering that it's in Boulder" statement really rubbed me wrong. The rate at which the Techstars founders are succeeding isn't surprising, if you look at the caliber of mentorship that's available in the area.

I'm originally from the SV, and am currently fairly active in the Boulder startup and tech community. I've been very impressed with the accessibility of prominent investors and successful founders in Boulder. There's the same type of geek magic here that the SV has. There's the same communal desire to help other startups succeed and grow, but with a tight-knit small-town feel.

If you haven't tried Boulder's tech community on for size, you really should. Hit http://boulder.me for more.

You read it wrong (or I was unclear in what I meant, more likely).

YC and PG (and thus news.yc) has a STRONG valley bias. I personally think the Valley's importance is overblown (and that the domination of the Valley is fading). So the remark was more of a jab at valley purists than a statement that "secondary" cities like Boulder (and Seattle, where I am) are less solid. That said, of course, statistically more startups get funded and sold in the valley than anywhere else (by raw # and percentage, near as I can tell). So yeah, I guess these numbers would be remarkable in the valley and are slightly more remarkable in a non-valley town.

I have a few posts (with some data) talking about how I think the Valley is losing dominance-- and I'd think TechStars' success is yet another data point here.

(search for "valley" and see 1st, 2nd, and 5th post on my blog if you'd like to see some interest data: http://www.tonywright.com/ )

Am I the only one who first read this headline as:

"Firefox acquired by Jive Software" ?

I just had to click on it after thinking "how is that possible?".

I read it as Flirtbox. Jive Software makes "enterprise" blogs and wikis; I wondered if they were getting into the business of dating sites for the enterprise?

How do the financials of an exit like this work out?

It's probably up to the investors in FiltrBox to decide what share of cash and stock that want. Or rather they can accept/reject the deal and that would be one of their considerations.

I am assuming it is <$5 million exit because Jive itself has funding of ~27 million

It could be more if they offered cash + stocks.

Pretty hard to know without knowing the landscape.

Scenario #1: FiltrBox was almost out of money and wasn't doing well enough to justify additional investment. They had no compelling IP/patents. Investors make a few phone calls and get a CEO to "buy" the company, which really means $50k signing bonuses for the founders and a nice options package.

Scenario #2: FiltrBox was killing it, growing like wildfire. They had a great IP attorney and some really impressive tech. Jive wanted the team and the IP bad and put together a $5m offer (stock heavy, likely).

Or anything in between....

(or anything in between).

I do wonder how they were doing. I tried out FiltrBox and after the trial they wanted $1k/yr for the service. Suffice to say we weren't their target market.

Congrats to Ari and Tom!

Congrats, guys!

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