it's like rock bands that sell out to major labels for big advances and then sell like 10,000 records and wind up owing the label. and you know the LABEL ruined the band.
good web startups aren't about money, they're about building something new. as fugazi puts it, "when we have nothing left to give there'll be no reason for us to live". basically, google was JUST GETTING STARTED and they KNEW it - they were following a brilliant brand into the infinite sun with no knowledge of how they'd milk it until all of a sudden the answer popped into their (well Bill Gross's) head.
so selling out means you're done developing the product. that is cool if you go design something else, but generally, the product winds up being dead on the vine. big companies buy small companies to scare and posture at other big companies and grab a few headlines.
in order to get acquired, you've got to have a "hit". some bands are one hit wonders. these bands like to work with major labels, which is OK if it makes the radio a bit cooler that summer (cf Cracker). but the major labels buried the Gang of Four, just as surely as they'd snip Twitter's in-house innovation capacity in the bud. That said, if the Twitter guys are "done" with innovating, good for them, go ahead and exit! but i hardly believe Twitter is done developing their product. therefore, NO SALE, and the chance for Twitter to unleash a bidding war for a tiny sliver of equity such as what was engineered by Facebook.
it's like rock bands that sell out to major labels for big advances and then sell like 10,000 records and wind up owing the label. and you know the LABEL ruined the band.
good web startups aren't about money, they're about building something new. as fugazi puts it, "when we have nothing left to give there'll be no reason for us to live". basically, google was JUST GETTING STARTED and they KNEW it - they were following a brilliant brand into the infinite sun with no knowledge of how they'd milk it until all of a sudden the answer popped into their (well Bill Gross's) head.
so selling out means you're done developing the product. that is cool if you go design something else, but generally, the product winds up being dead on the vine. big companies buy small companies to scare and posture at other big companies and grab a few headlines.
in order to get acquired, you've got to have a "hit". some bands are one hit wonders. these bands like to work with major labels, which is OK if it makes the radio a bit cooler that summer (cf Cracker). but the major labels buried the Gang of Four, just as surely as they'd snip Twitter's in-house innovation capacity in the bud. That said, if the Twitter guys are "done" with innovating, good for them, go ahead and exit! but i hardly believe Twitter is done developing their product. therefore, NO SALE, and the chance for Twitter to unleash a bidding war for a tiny sliver of equity such as what was engineered by Facebook.
- Srini Kumar MetaNotes.com