Why did we sell Dapper to Yahoo?

shir.posterous.com

24 points·lid··8 comments

"While I don't care much for the bi-weekly Arrington Yahoo bashing..."

So true...

"at Dapper, we ship daily. Inside Yahoo, this may change somewhat"

Understatement of the week. Best wishes, but don't expect to remain nimble! When they come to talk about the billing system integration and cutover, run for the hills!!

Delicious went from weekly shipping to annually...

Well, yahoo's money is green. I'd take it. But after my last acquisition experience (a similarly challenged very large company) I'd worry about my sanity working somewhere like that. And my liver.

This really does bother me. I understand selling your startup to a big company can give you life-changing money.

But still, where does all that passion with which you "made something people want" disappear? How can you move on and not think about how your users will be screwed?

I'm honestly asking. I haven't seen any "successful" startup person talk about this.

At the time, you can convince yourself that the acquisition is a good idea, it will be good for the product, and the users, and so on.

Realistically, who knows what would have happened? We had a hell of a time getting a Series B together. I might have had to shut it down if not for the acquisition.

"...for an undisclosed sum that someone will probably leak to Kara Swisher in a day or two." I was hoping you would trump the leak and let the cat out of the bag yourself on the exit.

He almost certainly signed an agreement that prevents him from disclosing that kind of information.

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