Poll: How little would you sell your startup for right now? | Hacker News Reader

Poll: How little would you sell your startup for right now?

9 pointsepi0Bauqu11 comments

I'm curious to know how much you are really valuing your startup in terms of the minimum $ it would take for you to give it up right now.

I realize all transactions are different, so I'm going to try to simplify it for you as much as possible. Suppose you net $X from the transaction, in your bank account, today. No other $ down the line.

Also, suppose you like the acquiring company, i.e. you think they won't mess it up. Suppose you get to do whatever you want after the acquisition (work on it, not work on it, consult, etc.). Suppose there is a non-compete structured in such as way as you can’t work on exactly the same thing for a while. And disregard any other liability--consider it worked into X.

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This may be just for fun, but it's rather ominous and appropriate for the times. Daydreaming about VC and acquisition rather than profits and running actual businesses.

I was waiting for a script to finish running, and thought it might give interesting results.

Hopefully you are not making a decision based on the results of this poll... It cannot possibly have any value other than entertainment value.

Neither really. Like I said in the poll text, I'm just curious to know how people on this forum are personally valuing their startups at the moment. Do we have a bunch of people who would sell for $100K or a bunch of $10M+ people? I just thought it might say something interesting about the community.

Question along the same line: has anyone open-sourced their app before selling their startup because they didn't trust the acquirer?

I imagine this theorizing all goes out the window when there is an actual live offer on the table.

I'd sell Brandfame for less than $50k ... anyone interested? lol

I don't want to sell. I want my company to get big so we can do the exciting work I see a company like ours doing down the road a few years. It isn't about the money, I don't want to lose my chance to influence the future by creating it.

(We are not yet funded and have no obligations to investors)

OK, I added a no amount choice. But really? You wouldn't sell for any amount?

I don't have investors yet. Don't care about the money.

If I get rich, I want to do other creative stuff with the money. 15 million is an institute for music composers, with access to staff, instruments, and state of the art music labs. 50 million is a non profit to design next generation nursing homes and non profit business models that improve care by spending more on staff and being endowed. 100 million is a center for the study of consciousness, to patronize great thinkers, and provide the resources for any kinds of interdisciplinary collaborations the smart folks need. 250 million is a center for the study of space and time, where philosophers and physics could work together to address fundamental questions with no academic requirements and many resources.

I'm not giving up my chance to build up a google size company and do all that other stuff for twenty million.

Selling one particular startup != "giving up my chance to build up a google size company". Not to mention that your chance of making a "google size company" is almost indistinguishable with zero (no matter how good your idea or team is).

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