It's the bureaucratic horror of large companies (for me, even HP when it was a Fortune 20 company, had it's irritations) that drove me to entrepreneurship. Being bought always means you have to return to that in some ways.
Here's the trick: plan for your "exit from your exit" when you are planning your current startup. I sold my recent company in 2018 and we already had plans for our next startup long before our exit appeared on the horizon. Thus we had our attorneys write our acquisition contract such that nothing in our future plans would be outside of the SPECIFIC purchase contract would ever be included or be on the table. At the same time we've used our post-tax purchase revenue, salaries, bonuses and commissions to provide seed money and investment in our next ventures.
The key thing: we "knew", and still know, we have multiple startups in us. Some are "singles", some are "doubles" and we have only one that might be a "home run". But all are on the table.
It's the bureaucratic horror of large companies (for me, even HP when it was a Fortune 20 company, had it's irritations) that drove me to entrepreneurship. Being bought always means you have to return to that in some ways.
Here's the trick: plan for your "exit from your exit" when you are planning your current startup. I sold my recent company in 2018 and we already had plans for our next startup long before our exit appeared on the horizon. Thus we had our attorneys write our acquisition contract such that nothing in our future plans would be outside of the SPECIFIC purchase contract would ever be included or be on the table. At the same time we've used our post-tax purchase revenue, salaries, bonuses and commissions to provide seed money and investment in our next ventures.
The key thing: we "knew", and still know, we have multiple startups in us. Some are "singles", some are "doubles" and we have only one that might be a "home run". But all are on the table.