Fresh college grad turned management consultant.  I come from a background in economics and computer science.  I blog in my spare time  about 3 major themes:

  • Strategy & structure
  • Technology & design
  • Telecom & media

I believe there is no such thing as an interesting fact; there are only interesting ideas.  In every entry I try to introduce at least one idea, and will never report just plain news.

Keep in mind that the content here is unrelated to my profession.  I invite you to read with an open mind and definitely to challenge the thinking!

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Apr'08
15
Growing from feature to business

M&A seems to be the only way out for startups these days. Most would point to a stale stock market and Sarbanes-Oxley as the reason for the rise in M&A exits vs. IPOs. Yet, I get the sense that it’s because many web startups simply have little hope of ever generating sustainable cash flows. I see a dependence on M&A, not a shift in preference. It’s gotten to the point where integration synergies is the entire value justification for a startup, meaning that the M&A not is just a liquidation pathway, but the sole sustainability pathway.

People are building features, not businesses.

Features get bought and die a slow death buried in misaligned stock options and brain drain. Businesses bloom into the Facebook’s and Google’s. Granted, every startup began more or less as a one-trick pony, so it must be that fewer startups are able to make the critical step growing from being just a feature to a real business.

I could write more, but gosh, someone more qualified has already address it.

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