Ask HN: Bigcorp wants to acquihire us. Should we agree? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Bigcorp wants to acquihire us. Should we agree?

7 pointslndwnd6 comments

Hello HN, I'm a 23 yr old living outside of the US. About a year ago, me and my co-founder left our jobs to work on our project full time. We developed a product, failed, pivoted, did successful PoC with enterprise company now a well known tech company is willing to acquihire us for 1M $ per capita (2 founders, we don't have employees nor raised any capital).

Currently we tend to refuse, but I worry we might missing a big opportunity. None of us is business savvy in any way. Odds are we will see nothing out of this venture (this is our first time). On the other hand, I personally want to build my entrepreneurship skills, and if we accept the offer we will have to work there for 4 years, meaning i could start a new venture only at 27.

What do you HN fellows think?

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Well..just off the bat...

What's your ARR?

Do you read SaaStr? This post is a great intro: http://www.saastr.com/saas-acquisitions-if-you-sell-do-it-at...

What clauses are on the acquisition? What is the vesting? Does it start immediately? What happens if they terminate you after two years? Do you still get the $?

What happens if you say, "That's an interesting offer, and we appreciate it. Let's see what happens in six months?"

Have you tried to contact Corp Dev at other, competing companies and mentioned you had a "substantial" acquisition offer on the table -- under no circumstances mention the name of the company that extended it -- and wanted to see whether they'd be interested in chatting?

Do the deal with BigCorp... it's a smart play and the transition will no doubt give you valuable insider operations experience.

But counter with a 2 year contract term; and be prepared to settle for 3 years. It's a small incremental concession they can afford to give.

BTW, recommend reading Stuart Diamond on negotiations > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOZo6Lx70ok

If you need to spend $$$ go for it. You can secure yourself with that kind of money. Buy a house, car, invest...whatever. You can spend now and get something that might be super expensive in the future.

On the other hand if you do not care and desire something else...back off.

1M for a year's worth of work? Even if you actually succeed with the startup, it is highly unlikely that you earn 1M per year in payouts.

Also think of your financial goals - 1M brings you pretty close to FU money.

I'm excited to see how this plays out.

you really need to talk to a lawyer about that. Also, is that their stock or cash? Also, just sticking that money in the stock market until you plan to retire would probably have you retiring pretty nice at 45 or in style at 55 or 65.

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