The Startup Choice: Get Big or Get Bought | Hacker News Reader

The Startup Choice: Get Big or Get Bought

money.cnn.com

Where did being sustainable go?

Small but sustainable startups are not on the media's radar. Simply put, we're boring.

The good thing is, I don't wake up in a cold sweat not knowing if I'll get Techcrunch coverage today. I wake up knowing I've built a profitable business that can be big (probably not enormous) and more than provide for myself, my team, and our investors. The "lifestyle" business has somehow gotten a bad rap, but there's honestly nothing wrong with creating a sustainable company that makes everyone involved (users included) very happy.

Kyle, honest question, and feel free to ping me off HN with thoughts, but you raised some money from a few investors if I recall. How do you square knowing your business will "probably not be enormous" with expectations from your investors? I wondered at this when I heard Forrst took investment. I'm a huge fan of niche online communities, but don't see how they could be deserving of investment due to growth limitations.

Definite false dichotomy. Get Big, Get Bought, or Get Profitable.

Or, ideally, all of the above. :)

I guess the assumption (not actually stated in the article) is that if your company does not get big or get bought, it will have its market share stolen by one that does. (Also mentioned in one of PG's essays but I can't remember which one.)

Or find this strange and mysterious thing that even coffee shops have figured out called a "business model". Amazingly if you charge just a little bit more than what it costs to provide the service you can keep on going like this indefinitely.

Apparently, there are businesses that have used this thing called profit to stay in business for hundreds of years. It sounds pretty mysterious to me, I better bet on the tried and true thing getting big or getting bought.

Interesting that they mention Gowalla pivoting and looking for a buyer. Then I see this a couple items down in my reader: Facebook buys Gowalla [http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/02/technology/gowalla_facebook/...]

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